Planning decisions in Lake District

How long Lake District takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 1,371 decisions it made in the twelve months to September 2026. Days run from validation to decision, the clock the council reports against; the wait from receipt is shown beside it. How the figures are made.

49 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 54 from receipt
73%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 88% within thirteen
90%approved (UK 90%): 1,122 approved, 127 refused, 87 withdrawn
78 of 388UK rank for speed, up 2 places on last year; 230 of 388 for approvals
056 October 2025: 54 days, 122 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 54 days, 112 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 53 days, 115 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 54 days, 88 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 53 days, 105 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 55 days, 137 decisionsMarApril 2026: 53 days, 116 decisionsAprMay 2026: 53 days, 112 decisionsMayJune 2026: 54 days, 102 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 53 days, 129 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 54 days, 109 decisionsAugSeptember 2026: 53 days, 124 decisionsSept
Median days from validation to decision, by month of decision. Dashed line: UK median (54 days). Grid at 56 and 91 days, the eight and thirteen week targets.

By kind of application

KindMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisionsUK rank
Full applications5164%89%55417 of 359
Tree works4097%96%249170 of 324
Amendments4671%87%142164 of 356
Prior approvals3283%92%97125 of 340
Discharge of conditions4179%97%9539 of 310
Listed building consent5359%92%7430 of 307
Lawful development certificates5264%78%70169 of 348
Advertisement consent *5067%80%1653 of 320
Other *4571%93%1416 of 35

Delegated or committee

RouteShareMedian daysApprovedDecisions
Delegated to officers96%4988%809
Planning committee4%8489%37

Where the register states how the decision was made. 525 decisions did not say.

Appeals

49 appeals against Lake District decisions were decided by the Planning Inspectorate in the window, 39 for every 100 refusals; 12% were allowed. Every appeal in Lake District.

By year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *6045%94%89
2017 *2792%86%40
2018 *2791%92%95
2019 *6938%88%55
2020 *3575%81%55
2021 *5653%79%44
2022 *9228%77%61
2023 *2491%92%59
2024 *5940%85%63
2025 *3080%93%82
2026 so far5466%89%1,022

* Years from our archive, which carries no validation date: timed from receipt, so a few days longer than the live years above them.

Past their target date now

Decided in the last three weeks

Built nightly from Lake District's planning register. Ranks are among the 388 published councils. See planning applications in Lake District, appeals, or get alerts for Lake District.

About these figures

How are decision times measured?
Days from the date the council validated the application to the date it decided it, for applications approved or refused in the window. That is the clock councils report against and the official statistics use. Each council’s page also shows the count from receipt, which is what the applicant actually waited. Withdrawn and undecided applications are not timed.
Why do these figures differ from the council’s own?
Councils count an agreed extension of time as decided on time; we treat the calendar as the calendar. Our figures are also live and rolling, where official statistics are quarterly and annual. So a council’s own within-eight-weeks figure will usually sit a little above ours.
What counts as approved?
Approval rate is approvals divided by approvals plus refusals. Withdrawals, and decisions whose outcome the register does not state, are counted in the totals but not in the rate.
Why is a council missing?
A council is published when it has at least 25 timed decisions in the window and its register’s decision data passes our consistency checks. Councils that fail are listed with the reason rather than shown with a number that would mislead.
How often is this updated?
Nightly, from the decisions we collect from every council register we monitor. The window is the twelve months to the last complete month.