🗓 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.
📊 Fenland
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 130 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 | 91.7% |
| Feb | Submit by end of Oct | 87.7% |
| Mar | Submit by end of Nov | 84% |
| Apr | Submit by end of Dec | 80% |
| May | Submit by end of Jan | 96.7% |
| Jun | Submit by end of Feb | 96.7% |
| Jul | Submit by end of Mar | 75% |
| Aug | Submit by end of Apr | 87.5% |
| Sep | Submit by end of May | 81% |
| Oct | Submit by end of Jun | 84.8% |
| Nov | Submit by end of Jul | 77.3% |
| Dec | Submit by end of Aug | 93.3% |
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 Fenland. 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: Amendment / NMA (43 days). Slowest: Full / Major (118 days).
| Application type | Decisions | Approval rate | Avg days | Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full / Major | 186 | 84.9% | 118 d (17 wk) | 41–358 d | Filter ▸ |
| Discharge Conditions | 112 | 98.2% | 88 d (13 wk) | 19–350 d | Filter ▸ |
| Tree Works / TPO | 56 | 82.1% | 66 d (9 wk) | 28–252 d | Filter ▸ |
| Amendment / NMA | 36 | 88.9% | 43 d (6 wk) | 11–145 d | Filter ▸ |
| Heritage / LB | 13 | 92.3% | 92 d (13 wk) | 56–171 d | Filter ▸ |
| Conservation Area (low sample) | 4 | 100% | 41 d (6 wk) | 38–42 d | Filter ▸ |
| Advertisement (low sample) | 4 | 100% | 75 d (11 wk) | 63–88 d | Filter ▸ |
| Listed Building (low sample) | 3 | 66.7% | 72 d (10 wk) | 60–93 d | Filter ▸ |
| Reserved Matters (low sample) | 2 | 100% | 62 d (9 wk) | 56–68 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 | 30 |
96.7%
|
135d (~19wk) | → June | 71–339d |
| February | 30 |
96.7%
|
106d (~15wk) | → June | 32–295d |
| March | 20 |
75%
|
126d (~18wk) | → July | 27–271d |
| April | 32 |
87.5%
|
138d (~20wk) | → September | 75–365d |
| May | 84 |
81%
|
88d (~13wk) | → August | 49–350d |
| June | 79 |
84.8%
|
74d (~11wk) | → August | 26–325d |
| July | 44 |
77.3%
|
77d (~11wk) | → October | 27–309d |
| August | 30 |
93.3%
|
99d (~14wk) | → November | 20–350d |
| September | 48 |
91.7%
|
106d (~15wk) | → January | 19–343d |
| October | 65 |
87.7%
|
65d (~9wk) | → December | 11–308d |
| November | 25 |
84%
|
107d (~15wk) | → March | 18–307d |
| December | 15 |
80%
|
166d (~24wk) | → June | 15–358d |
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 | 127 | 92.1% | 100 |
| Tuesday | 103 | 86.4% | 121 |
| Wednesday | 95 | 82.1% | 102 |
| Thursday | 95 | 84.2% | 114 |
| Friday | 97 | 83.5% | 111 |
📊 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.