🗓 Submission Timing Intelligence
When is the best month — and weekday — to submit your planning application? Real approval-rate + decision-speed data from 144,135 dated decisions across UK LPAs.
📊 Adur and Worthing
Months below refer to when you submit, not when the decision lands. Each application is bucketed by its received_date month — but the approval rate measures the final outcome, whenever it landed (60-90 days later typically). The lag is already baked into the signal: "submit in December = 100% approval" already accounts for the fact that those decisions arrive in Feb/March. The month-by-month table below shows the lag explicitly so you can see the full cycle.
Use the type chips above to filter to the application type you are actually making — and treat cross-council comparisons of the mixed number with care, since the mix depends on which source fed each council.
🎯 Inverse view — "I want a decision in [month], when do I submit?"
Based on this LPA's typical decision-lag of 113 days (~4 months), the table below shows when to submit if you want your decision to land in a specific month.
| If you want a decision in... | Submit by (approx.) | That submit month's approval rate |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | Submit by end of Sep | 94.4% |
| Feb | Submit by end of Oct | 90% |
| Mar | Submit by end of Nov | 95.7% |
| Apr | Submit by end of Dec | 100% |
| May | Submit by end of Jan | 100% |
| Jun | Submit by end of Feb | 95.3% |
| Jul | Submit by end of Mar | 94.5% |
| Aug | Submit by end of Apr | 64.7% |
| Sep | Submit by end of May | 82.1% |
| Oct | Submit by end of Jun | 95.8% |
| Nov | Submit by end of Jul | 93.8% |
| Dec | Submit by end of Aug | 96.3% |
Inverse calculation is approximate — actual decision time varies (range typically ±30 days). Use the Decision Time Predictor for tighter forecasts.
⏱ Decision speed by application type
How long different application types actually take at Adur and Worthing. Householder apps are statutorily 8 weeks; full/major are 13 weeks — but the real numbers usually drift. This is what the data says, not what the statute says.
→ Fastest: Advertisement (69 days). Slowest: Discharge Conditions (95 days).
| Application type | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full / Major | 322 | 92.5% | 80 d (11 wk) | 27–331 d | Filter ▸ |
| Tree Works / TPO | 89 | 97.8% | 72 d (10 wk) | 36–107 d | Filter ▸ |
| Discharge Conditions | 59 | 94.9% | 95 d (14 wk) | 6–333 d | Filter ▸ |
| Amendment / NMA | 17 | 100% | 73 d (10 wk) | 20–234 d | Filter ▸ |
| Advertisement | 12 | 75% | 69 d (10 wk) | 28–134 d | Filter ▸ |
| Heritage / LB | 9 | 100% | 83 d (12 wk) | 53–128 d | Filter ▸ |
📅 Month-by-month breakdown — full submit→decide cycle
Each row shows the complete journey for applications received in that month: how long they took, when the decision actually landed, and what % were approved. The approval rate already accounts for everything that happens between submission and decision — the lag is part of the signal.
| Submit month | Decisions | Approval rate | Median lag | Decision typically lands in | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 27 |
100%
|
125d (~18wk) | → May | 71–329d |
| February | 86 |
95.3%
|
80d (~11wk) | → May | 46–186d |
| March | 73 |
94.5%
|
78d (~11wk) | → June | 20–314d |
| April | 17 |
64.7%
|
127d (~18wk) | → August | 82–225d |
| May | 39 |
82.1%
|
93d (~13wk) | → August | 58–214d |
| June | 95 |
95.8%
|
69d (~10wk) | → August | 24–200d |
| July | 64 |
93.8%
|
69d (~10wk) | → September | 5–182d |
| August | 80 |
96.3%
|
52d (~7wk) | → October | 6–124d |
| September | 36 |
94.4%
|
82d (~12wk) | → December | 26–333d |
| October | 40 |
90%
|
61d (~9wk) | → December | 34–206d |
| November | 23 |
95.7%
|
65d (~9wk) | → January | 21–331d |
| December | 6 |
100%
|
160d (~23wk) | → May | 12–308d |
Read across each row: submit in [month] → wait [median lag] → decision lands in [target month] → outcome [approval rate]. The approval rate is the final outcome of the whole cycle, not a snapshot.
🗓 Day-of-week patterns
| Day received | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 145 | 94.5% | 82 |
| Tuesday | 97 | 95.9% | 81 |
| Wednesday | 140 | 92.1% | 74 |
| Thursday | 112 | 92% | 93 |
| Friday | 100 | 93% | 91 |
📊 Data sources & freshness
Timing is a tactical edge, not strategic justification. Use alongside the constraint check + pattern fingerprint to make the case strong on substance, then time it to land well.
- planning_applications.received_date (updated Daily ingest)
144,135 dated decisions where a submission date and a decision are both known. The submission date is received_date, falling back to validated_date — many council portals publish only the validated date, and the statutory clock runs from it. Approval = approved/granted/permit. Sample size gating: months with fewer than 8 decisions excluded from best/worst recommendation. - Day-of-week patterns
Reflects when applicants choose to submit, which may correlate with applicant type (Monday = professional consultants; Friday = end-of-week DIY submissions). Causality is correlative not causal. - Decision-time outliers
Months showing 200+ day averages are flagged — they reflect older PINS-appeal-derived rows where determinations stretched over many months. Read the Jan/Feb/Nov/Dec numbers (largest samples) as the reliable benchmark.