Planning decisions in Orkney

How long Orkney takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 313 decisions it made in the twelve months to September 2026. Days run from validation to decision, the clock the council reports against; the wait from receipt is shown beside it. How the figures are made.

71 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 104 from receipt
30%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 66% within thirteen
96%approved (UK 90%): 282 approved, 11 refused, 14 withdrawn
371 of 388UK rank for speed, down 109 places on last year; 51 of 388 for approvals
05691 October 2025: 85 days, 26 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 67 days, 20 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 97 days, 32 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 93 days, 16 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 104 days, 28 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 137 days, 31 decisionsMarApril 2026: 119 days, 30 decisionsAprMay 2026: 97 days, 34 decisionsMayJune 2026: 111 days, 26 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 109 days, 23 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 108 days, 23 decisionsAugSeptember 2026: 114 days, 24 decisionsSept
Median days from validation to decision, by month of decision. Dashed line: UK median (54 days). Grid at 56 and 91 days, the eight and thirteen week targets.

By kind of application

KindMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisionsUK rank
Full applications10211%95%133344 of 359
Householder applications7127%100%46187 of 200
Prior approvals2680%100%3559 of 340
Listed building consent7012%100%33222 of 307
Amendments *3175%90%2361 of 356

Delegated or committee

RouteShareMedian daysApprovedDecisions
Delegated to officers93%7097%289
Planning committee7%10691%22

Where the register states how the decision was made. 2 decisions did not say.

By year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *5846%100%40
2017 *5063%100%56
2018 *6337%96%300
2019 *4856%94%59
2020 *3662%92%55
2021 *6831%98%43
2022 *7226%96%28
2023 *9512%96%205
2024 *8515%97%178
2025 *7140%90%53
2026 so far11216%96%235

* Years from our archive, which carries no validation date: timed from receipt, so a few days longer than the live years above them.

Past their target date now

Decided in the last three weeks

Built nightly from Orkney's planning register. Ranks are among the 388 published councils. See planning applications in Orkney, or get alerts for Orkney.

About these figures

How are decision times measured?
Days from the date the council validated the application to the date it decided it, for applications approved or refused in the window. That is the clock councils report against and the official statistics use. Each council’s page also shows the count from receipt, which is what the applicant actually waited. Withdrawn and undecided applications are not timed.
Why do these figures differ from the council’s own?
Councils count an agreed extension of time as decided on time; we treat the calendar as the calendar. Our figures are also live and rolling, where official statistics are quarterly and annual. So a council’s own within-eight-weeks figure will usually sit a little above ours.
What counts as approved?
Approval rate is approvals divided by approvals plus refusals. Withdrawals, and decisions whose outcome the register does not state, are counted in the totals but not in the rate.
Why is a council missing?
A council is published when it has at least 25 timed decisions in the window and its register’s decision data passes our consistency checks. Councils that fail are listed with the reason rather than shown with a number that would mislead.
How often is this updated?
Nightly, from the decisions we collect from every council register we monitor. The window is the twelve months to the last complete month.