🗓 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.
📊 Falkirk
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.
🎯 Inverse view — "I want a decision in [month], when do I submit?"
Based on this LPA's typical decision-lag of 121 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 | 100% |
| Feb | Submit by end of Oct | 95.3% |
| Mar | Submit by end of Nov | 91.3% |
| Apr | Submit by end of Dec | 100% |
| May | Submit by end of Jan | 100% |
| Jun | Submit by end of Feb | 90% |
| Jul | Submit by end of Mar | 91.8% |
| Aug | Submit by end of Apr | 96.2% |
| Sep | Submit by end of May | 100% |
| Oct | Submit by end of Jun | 100% |
| Nov | Submit by end of Jul | 100% |
| Dec | Submit by end of Aug | 100% |
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 Falkirk. 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 (67 days). Slowest: Discharge Conditions (84 days).
| Application type | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full / Major | 297 | 98% | 80 d (11 wk) | 2–326 d | Filter ▸ |
| Heritage / LB | 20 | 95% | 81 d (12 wk) | 2–313 d | Filter ▸ |
| Advertisement | 18 | 100% | 67 d (10 wk) | 30–165 d | Filter ▸ |
| Discharge Conditions | 10 | 80% | 84 d (12 wk) | 8–203 d | Filter ▸ |
| Amendment / NMA (low sample) | 1 | 100% | 52 d (7 wk) | 52–52 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 | 8 |
100%
|
124d (~18wk) | → May | 64–251d |
| February | 30 |
90%
|
74d (~11wk) | → April | 32–234d |
| March | 49 |
91.8%
|
80d (~11wk) | → June | 29–204d |
| April | 26 |
96.2%
|
96d (~14wk) | → July | 30–167d |
| May | 24 |
100%
|
104d (~15wk) | → August | 8–302d |
| June | 62 |
100%
|
68d (~10wk) | → August | 38–219d |
| July | 58 |
100%
|
62d (~9wk) | → September | 21–249d |
| August | 22 |
100%
|
58d (~8wk) | → October | 4–277d |
| September | 25 |
100%
|
71d (~10wk) | → November | 2–200d |
| October | 64 |
95.3%
|
76d (~11wk) | → January | 2–326d |
| November | 23 |
91.3%
|
91d (~13wk) | → February | 3–313d |
| December | 10 |
100%
|
162d (~23wk) | → May | 39–254d |
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 | 107 | 95.3% | 84 |
| Tuesday | 83 | 98.8% | 90 |
| Wednesday | 79 | 92.4% | 114 |
| Thursday | 76 | 97.4% | 95 |
| Friday | 65 | 100% | 73 |
📊 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.