Planning performance statistics: annual and quarterly reports, 2016-2017

Statistics on planning decision-making and timescales between the periods 2012 to 2013 and 2016 to 2017.


12. Local Developments by Planning Authority, 2016/17

Since a few legacy cases can skew results, particularly at planning authority level, results in this section are only given for post 3rd August applications. Results for all applications can be found in the detailed excel tables at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Planning

12.1 Local Developments - by development type, 2016/17

Chart 59: Local Developments by planning authority and development type, 2016/17 1

Chart 59: Local Developments by planning authority and development type, 2016/17

1. The number in brackets gives the total number of local development decisions by planning authority (excluding processing agreements). See Section 2 for further details of processing agreements.

The chart shows information on the case mix for each planning authority, ordered by the most frequent (householder) applications. For the sixteen planning authorities from East Dunbartonshire down to West Lothian over half of decisions made on local developments were for householder applications. At the other end of the scale, in the Cairngorms National Park there were no decisions for householder applications. The case mix may have an influence on overall average decision times within a particular authority. For example, given that householder applications are on average decided more quickly than other types, it might be expected that overall average decision times will be lower for those planning authorities that have a higher proportion of householder applications in their case mix.

12.2 Local Developments - average decision times, 2016/17

The chart below shows the average decision times for local developments ordered by the number of decisions made for local developments in each planning authority. In total there were 26,986 decisions made on local developments in 2016/17 with an overall average decision time of 9.2 weeks.

Chart 60: Local Developments by planning authority, 2016/17: Average decision time (weeks)

Chart 60: Local Developments by planning authority, 2016/17: Average decision time (weeks)

1. The number in brackets gives the total number of local development decisions by planning authority (excluding processing agreements). See Section 2 for further details of processing agreements.

The average decision time for the Cairngorms National Park (70.8 weeks for 2 applications) has not been shown in the above chart. It should be expected that Cairngorms has a longer average decision time as they do not receive planning applications directly but are notified of applications which have been made to those planning authorities within the National Park boundaries. Cairngorms National Park may then decide to call applications in for their determination. Planning applications are likely to have already been in the system for a number of weeks before being transferred to Cairngorms National Park. In addition, Cairngorms National Park have no householder applications in their case mix for 2016/17. For these reasons average times for Cairngorms National Park applications can be expected to be higher than those of the other planning authorities. In 2016/17 Cairngorms National Park made decisions for a further 17 local applications using processing agreements with 16 (94%) of these meeting agreed timescales.

12.3 Local Developments - percentages under two months, 2016/17

The following chart shows the percentages of decisions made in less than two months ordered by the total number of decisions made by each planning authority.

Chart 61: Local Developments by planning authority, 2016/17: Percentage under 2 months

Chart 61: Local Developments by planning authority, 2016/17: Percentage under 2 months

At Scotland level the percentage of decisions made in less than two months was 75.4%. Highland made the most decisions on local developments (2,392) and 65.1% of these were made in less than 2 months.

The following table is an extract from Annual, 2016/17 - Table 4 and allows comparison with results from previous years.

Table 7: Local Applications: Average Time & Percentage under 2 months

Planning Authority 2016/17 2015/16 2014/15 2013/14 2012/13
Number of applications Percent Under 2 Months Overall Average Time (weeks) Number of applications Percent Under 2 Months Overall Average Time (weeks) Number of applications Percent Under 2 Months Overall Average Time (weeks) Number of applications Percent Under 2 Months Overall Average Time (weeks) Number of applications Percent Under 2 Months Overall Average Time (weeks)
Aberdeen City 883 52.4% 10.5 1,140 46.7% 12.2 1,170 36.3% 14.4 1,227 52.2% 12.5 1,189 52.6% 11.9
Aberdeenshire 1,905 89.6% 8.6 2,685 76.1% 10.7 2,982 65.5% 11.9 2,913 69.9% 12.2 3,075 62.7% 15.4
Angus 642 88.3% 7.8 727 77.4% 9.2 737 80.6% 9.1 798 75.3% 8.2 763 80.3% 9.2
Argyll & Bute 1,053 64.7% 10.6 996 73.4% 9.2 1,097 77.8% 9.5 1,083 76.3% 10.3 1,061 69.2% 11.6
Cairngorms NP 2 0.0% 70.8 7 14.3% 14.6 37 13.5% 21.3 46 19.6% 17.7 48 8.3% 18.3
Clackmannanshire 199 89.9% 7.1 195 87.2% 6.5 184 94.0% 6.4 197 92.4% 6.8 192 84.9% 7.8
Dumfries & Galloway 957 58.6% 10.5 1,110 66.9% 9.8 1,860 69.4% 9.5 1,485 50.3% 11.9 1,264 46.8% 12.9
Dundee City 421 84.8% 7.4 462 77.1% 8.1 401 81.8% 7.8 438 81.7% 7.6 377 84.1% 7.0
East Ayrshire 507 73.6% 10.0 432 69.2% 11.8 429 62.0% 12.7 430 68.6% 13.0 492 60.4% 11.7
East Dunbartonshire 629 84.4% 9.5 646 86.5% 9.4 623 92.5% 8.6 618 90.3% 8.7 662 84.1% 10.1
East Lothian 769 82.7% 10.4 785 85.4% 9.0 749 87.0% 9.7 840 86.5% 10.7 738 83.3% 11.6
East Renfrewshire 616 82.1% 7.2 600 91.8% 6.9 606 87.5% 7.0 581 85.0% 7.3 546 84.2% 8.3
Edinburgh, City of 1,979 77.2% 9.8 2,253 79.0% 9.4 2,219 78.2% 9.1 2,148 80.6% 8.6 2,069 82.4% 8.3
Falkirk 510 83.3% 8.6 493 80.3% 9.4 512 78.1% 8.9 514 79.6% 8.8 507 65.9% 11.7
Fife 1,833 58.9% 11.7 1,767 59.0% 11.2 1,899 55.8% 11.9 1,756 60.3% 12.7 1,751 64.2% 12.8
Glasgow City 1,712 73.7% 9.7 1,565 63.9% 10.6 1,503 69.3% 10.7 1,584 67.5% 11.0 1,403 69.6% 11.3
Highland 2,392 65.1% 11.0 2,487 68.6% 10.6 2,383 70.9% 10.7 2,597 70.7% 10.6 2,436 67.3% 11.4
Inverclyde 301 88.7% 7.5 279 91.0% 6.7 270 91.9% 7.0 303 86.8% 7.1 306 82.4% 7.7
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs NP 238 33.6% 12.1 223 39.0% 12.3 193 56.5% 12.2 201 63.7% 12.0 237 59.9% 12.3
Midlothian 403 83.1% 8.4 488 83.0% 8.7 423 87.0% 8.4 424 85.1% 10.0 444 74.8% 10.8
Moray 596 95.8% 6.7 718 94.6% 7.2 789 92.6% 7.2 856 83.3% 10.1 817 67.2% 14.9
Na h-Eileanan Siar 360 69.4% 7.6 317 65.9% 8.6 353 64.3% 11.1 400 60.5% 9.8 413 59.1% 10.7
North Ayrshire 512 99.2% 5.2 454 98.7% 5.3 471 97.7% 5.7 495 96.0% 6.2 457 90.8% 7.7
North Lanarkshire 858 76.3% 8.1 858 68.9% 9.6 838 73.3% 9.2 917 87.5% 8.4 875 73.7% 11.3
Orkney Islands 386 72.0% 8.5 435 64.4% 8.6 365 67.4% 9.0 381 62.7% 10.6 609 46.1% 10.7
Perth & Kinross 1,331 87.2% 7.4 1,407 81.8% 9.1 1,412 72.1% 9.5 1,495 73.5% 10.3 1,449 69.4% 10.2
Renfrewshire 547 67.3% 8.5 554 72.0% 8.6 532 80.8% 7.7 566 80.7% 7.8 556 78.8% 9.2
Scottish Borders 635 86.0% 7.2 884 73.6% 12.1 912 68.0% 15.0 907 69.7% 16.6 947 64.2% 13.9
Shetland Islands 305 46.6% 11.9 313 47.0% 12.3 294 57.1% 9.6 356 57.0% 11.0 286 68.2% 11.0
South Ayrshire 640 89.8% 6.8 687 90.4% 6.4 736 79.5% 7.9 693 90.8% 7.1 722 86.7% 7.6
South Lanarkshire 1,470 76.6% 7.8 1,375 72.8% 10.3 1,431 71.1% 10.9 1,327 67.3% 13.1 1,274 68.8% 11.9
Stirling 621 68.6% 9.6 596 68.1% 10.2 579 73.7% 9.5 630 77.6% 9.5 580 78.4% 9.7
West Dunbartonshire 194 81.4% 8.3 208 69.2% 8.8 180 75.0% 8.5 208 75.5% 9.8 213 83.1% 9.3
West Lothian 580 82.6% 8.4 618 82.4% 8.7 570 83.9% 8.0 612 77.8% 9.2 574 73.2% 12.0
SCOTLAND 26,986 75.4% 9.2 28,764 73.4% 9.7 29,739 72.1% 10.1 30,026 72.7% 10.6 29,332 69.4% 11.4

Aberdeenshire, Angus, Scottish Borders and West Dunbartonshire saw the biggest improvements in the percentage of decisions made in less than two months between 2015/16 and 2016/17.

Contact

Email: planstats@gov.scot

Phone: 0300 244 4000 – Central Enquiry Unit

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

Back to top