Ards and North Down Borough Council planning approval rate
Ards and North Down Borough Council council approved 97.0% of planning applications and refused 3.0%, based on 7,954 decisions analysed. Ranked 256th out of 279 councils for strictness.
Last updated: June 2026 · Based on decisions from January 2020 to present
97.0%
overall approval rate
Planning in Ards and North Down Borough Council?
Check your postcode to see approval rates specific to your ward and street.
Approval rate by application type
Different application types have different approval rates in Ards and North Down Borough Council. Householder and full planning applications typically have the highest volume.
Approval rate by project type
These rates are based on what homeowners are actually building in Ards and North Down Borough Council — mined from 7,954 proposal descriptions.
Approval rate by ward
Planning outcomes vary significantly by ward within Ards and North Down Borough Council. Click any ward for detailed statistics.
Wards in Ards and North Down Borough Council
Recent comparable decisions
The most recent residential planning decisions in Ards and North Down Borough Council, showing how the council decides real applications.
2no. dwellings and garages · · 2025-08-22
Replacement dwelling and erection of double garage and granny flat · · 2025-03-31
Farm dwelling and garage. · · 2025-03-31
Showing 3 of 200 comparable decisions. See all 200 in the full report →
What gets approved near your property?
In Ards and North Down Borough Council, 1 in 33 applications are refused. Your PlanningLens Full Planning Analysis gives you 17 pages of intelligence specific to your property:
✓ Ward-level approval rates for your exact area
✓ Common refusal reasons in Ards and North Down Borough Council
✓ Your 10 nearest comparable planning decisions
✓ Appeal success rates
✓ PDF report to share with your architect
Free planning check for Ards and North Down Borough Council →
Free. Based on 7,954 decisions.
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Frequently asked questions about planning in Ards and North Down Borough Council
What is the planning approval rate in Ards and North Down Borough Council?
Based on 7,954 planning decisions analysed since 2020, Ards and North Down Borough Council approved 97.0% of applications and refused 3.0%. The council is ranked 256th out of 279 UK councils for approval rate.
Which areas of Ards and North Down Borough Council have the highest planning approval rates?
Approval rates in Ards and North Down Borough Council vary by ward — see the ward breakdown above for detailed figures for each area.
What types of planning application are most common in Ards and North Down Borough Council?
The most common planning application types in Ards and North Down Borough Council are: Other (7,954 decisions, 97.0% approved).
How long does a planning application take in Ards and North Down Borough Council?
Planning applications in Ards and North Down Borough Council take an average of 25.3 weeks to reach a decision, measured across 7,590 decisions with a recorded timeline. That is slower than the 8-week statutory target for householder applications (the statutory targets are 8 weeks for householder applications and 13 weeks for major developments). PlanningLens measures the actual time each application takes, not just the target. Ards and North Down Borough Council decides approximately 1,326 planning applications per year.
How do I check planning applications in Ards and North Down Borough Council?
You can search planning applications in Ards and North Down Borough Council directly on the council's official planning portal. PlanningLens also lets you check any postcode against 7,954 historical decisions in Ards and North Down Borough Council to see what's been approved and refused near a specific property.
How is PlanningLens approval rate data for Ards and North Down Borough Council calculated?
PlanningLens scrapes Ards and North Down Borough Council's official planning portal and analyses every published decision since January 2020. The approval rate is calculated as approved decisions divided by total decided applications, excluding withdrawn and pending applications. The full methodology, data sourcing, and Creative Commons BY 4.0 licensing terms are published at
planninglens.co.uk/methodology.