Planning decisions in West Dunbartonshire

How long West Dunbartonshire takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 257 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.

58 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 69 from receipt

47%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 86% within thirteen

97%approved (UK 90%): 193 approved, 5 refused, 54 withdrawn

339 of 388UK rank for speed, down 71 places on last year; 25 of 388 for approvals

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

Kind	Median days	Within 8 weeks	Approved	Decisions	UK rank
Full applications	59	40%	97%	170	198 of 359
Advertisement consent *	45	79%	100%	21	16 of 320
Tree works *	43	60%	93%	20	228 of 324
Lawful development certificates *	40	83%	100%	16	51 of 348
Listed building consent *	56	54%	100%	15	113 of 307

By year

Year decided	Median days	Within 8 weeks	Approved	Decisions
2016 *	56	51%	98%	178
2017 *	60	39%	95%	229
2018 *	70	29%	98%	222
2019 *	110	6%	97%	174
2020 *	91	25%	95%	245
2021 *	24	76%	92%	64
2022 *	32	67%	91%	71
2023 *	18	81%	87%	131
2024 *	11	89%	98%	95
2025 *	71	28%	100%	111
2026 so far	67	29%	97%	184

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

Decided in the last three weeks

Land At, Lomondgate Drive, Dumbarton
Temporary Change of Use of Land to a Parking Area for Vehicles and Trailers, including Boundary Fencing and Hardstanding
Approved19 Oct 2026
16 Wylie Avenue, Alexandria, G83 0AX
Proposed driveway
Approved8 Oct 2026

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

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 Withdrawn and undecided applications are not timed.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.