§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the average times taken for planning applications to be processed by each planning authority in the last year for which figures are available. [75302]
§ Mr. Raynsford[holding answer 10 March 1999]: The information needed to determine the average time for planning applications to be processed is collected centrally only for a small number of mainly minerals and waste development applications (known as 'county matters'). These represent less than 1 per cent. of all applications and include some large, complex and contentious applications which tend to raise difficult planning issues that take some time to resolve. Information on the average time taken to determine this category of applications for the year ending September 1998 is shown in the table.
The speed at which decisions are made for the vast majority of applications, i.e. all except 'county matters', is measured in terms of the proportion of decisions determined within 8 weeks and 13 weeks. In the year ending September 1998, 62 per cent. of these applications in England were determined within 8 weeks and 83 per cent. within 13 weeks.
The Department is currently considering whether average time taken to determine applications should be included in the suite of Best Value performance indicators on which the Department will be consulting later this year.
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'County matters' planning applications decided: England, year ending September 1998 Number of decisions Average decision time (days) County councils Bedfordshire 23 339 Buckinghamshire 36 232 Cambridgeshire1 37 165 Cheshire1 35 188 Cornwall 38 119 Cumbria 47 116 Derbyshire 43 230 Devon1 46 179 Dorset 33 95 Durham 25 378 East Sussex 39 107 Essex1 65 171 Gloucestershire 31 163 Hampshire 69 170 Hertfordshire 31 250 Kent1 57 204 Lancashire1 53 157 Leicestershire 27 230 Lincolnshire 59 127 Norfolk 57 235 North Yorkshire 51 208 Northamptonshire 34 346 Northumberland 55 152 Nottinghamshire1 38 237 Oxfordshire 21 328 Shropshire1 25 308 Somerset 44 168 Staffordshire 67 331 Suffolk 46 144 Surrey 53 151 Warwickshire 28 113 West Sussex 27 169 Wiltshire 11 223 Worcestershire2 7 305 London Boroughs Brent 3 189 Camden 2 96 Haringey 1 34 Hillingdon 1 248 Southwark3 1 121 National Park authorities Lake District 1 92 Peak 16 107 Dartmoor 2 106 Exmoor 2 57 North York Moors 5 177 Unitary Authorities Bath and North East Somerset 2 346 South Gloucestershire 7 937 North Somerset 4 93 West Berkshire4 3 120 Slough4 4 87 Windsor and Maidenhead4 1 290 Milton Keynes 2 344 Peterborough4 3 121 Hartlepool3 4 73 Middlesbrough3 2 92 Stockton-on-Tees3 6 82 Derby 2 102 Bournemouth 1 52 Thurrock4 2 108 Portsmouth 3 152 Southampton 2 203 East Riding of Yorkshire 17 218 North East Lincolnshire 2 98 North Lincolnshire 5 138
'County matters' planning applications decided: England, year ending September 1998 Number of decisions Average decision time (days) Kingston-upon-Hull 3 88 Isle of Wight 3 264 Medway4 9 109 Leicester 1 129 Rutland 3 216 City of York 4 189 Stoke on Trent 2 131 Swindon 5 65 Metropolitan districts Bolton 6 205 Bury 6 160 Oldham5 5 82 Rochdale 5 235 Salford 1 222 Wigan 8 103 St. Helens 7 179 Barnsley5 8 158 Doncaster 13 325 Rotherham 12 125 Sheffield5 8 129 Newcastle upon Tyne 2 91 Dudley 1 133 Wolverhampton3 3 117 Bradford 21 210 Calderdale 10 109 Kirklees5 18 302 Leeds 41 165 Wakefield 7 261 1 Excludes Unitary Authorities created on 1 April 1998. 2 Following local government reorganisation on 1 April 1998, Hereford and Worcester county was split into Herefordshire Unity Authority and Worcestershire. Figures are provided from this date onwards. 3 Authorities comprise parts of wound up Urban Development Corporations from 1 April 1998. 4 Unitary Authorities created on 1 April 1998. 5 Authorities include areas within a National Park but figures are for outside the park area only.