Planning decisions in Winchester

How long Winchester takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 1,740 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.

56 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 62 from receipt
54%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 84% within thirteen
95%approved (UK 90%): 1,567 approved, 76 refused, 89 withdrawn
316 of 388UK rank for speed, down 173 places on last year; 73 of 388 for approvals
056 October 2025: 65 days, 127 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 65 days, 149 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 55 days, 73 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 63 days, 126 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 57 days, 140 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 56 days, 179 decisionsMarApril 2026: 59 days, 137 decisionsAprMay 2026: 58 days, 155 decisionsMayJune 2026: 68 days, 170 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 56 days, 182 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 60 days, 118 decisionsAugSeptember 2026: 63 days, 184 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
Tree works5260%98%446276 of 324
Householder applications5846%97%415159 of 200
Discharge of conditions4463%over 99%24763 of 310
Full applications8021%84%142305 of 359
Amendments5563%95%118278 of 356
Lawful development certificates5665%87%110291 of 348
Listed building consent6539%97%101198 of 307
Prior approvals4284%93%72277 of 340
Advertisement consent5655%93%41232 of 320
Section 106 and planning obligations *7835%100%2320 of 29

Delegated or committee

RouteShareMedian daysApprovedDecisions
Delegated to officers99%5695%1,648
Planning committee1%12393%15

Where the register states how the decision was made. 77 decisions did not say.

Appeals

45 appeals against Winchester decisions were decided by the Planning Inspectorate in the window, 59 for every 100 refusals; 18% were allowed. Every appeal in Winchester.

By year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *6235%95%38
2017 *7717%95%143
2018 *7127%98%49
2019 *6339%97%102
2020 *3472%100%87
2021 *5558%93%155
2022 *5664%76%25
2023 *7020%89%47
2024 *4866%98%531
2025 *5941%88%32
2026 so far5946%96%1,391

* 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 Winchester's planning register. Ranks are among the 388 published councils. See planning applications in Winchester, appeals, or get alerts for Winchester.

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.