Planning decisions in Woking

How long Woking takes to decide a planning application and how many it approves, from the 1,308 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.

56 daysmedian from validation to decision (UK 54); 56 from receipt
56%decided within eight weeks (UK 66%), 89% within thirteen
88%approved (UK 90%): 1,143 approved, 160 refused
302 of 388UK rank for speed, down 175 places on last year; 283 of 388 for approvals
056 October 2025: 56 days, 103 decisionsOctNovember 2025: 52 days, 113 decisionsNovDecember 2025: 55 days, 114 decisionsDecJanuary 2026: 10 days, 132 decisionsJanFebruary 2026: 38 days, 77 decisionsFebMarch 2026: 54 days, 123 decisionsMarApril 2026: 56 days, 91 decisionsAprMay 2026: 56 days, 112 decisionsMayJune 2026: 56 days, 121 decisionsJunJuly 2026: 63 days, 105 decisionsJulAugust 2026: 60 days, 106 decisionsAugSeptember 2026: 56 days, 135 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
Householder applications6739%89%427179 of 200
Tree works5178%94%332268 of 324
Full applications7032%75%134262 of 359
Discharge of conditions5657%98%130223 of 310
Lawful development certificates5660%73%105301 of 348
Amendments5370%79%73251 of 356
Prior approvals *4183%77%48256 of 340
Advertisement consent *6446%86%22288 of 320

Delegated or committee

RouteShareMedian daysApprovedDecisions
Delegated to officers98%5688%1,275
Planning committee2%7988%24

Where the register states how the decision was made. 9 decisions did not say.

Appeals

47 appeals against Woking decisions were decided by the Planning Inspectorate in the window, 29 for every 100 refusals; 30% were allowed. Every appeal in Woking.

By year

Year decidedMedian daysWithin 8 weeksApprovedDecisions
2016 *2898%86%63
2017 *5668%100%34
2018 *50100%97%384
2019 *5578%83%140
2020 *5374%89%151
2021 *3275%86%63
2022 *5476%97%34
2023 *5372%80%146
2024 *5658%73%26
2025 *4688%94%322
2026 so far5656%88%1,002

* 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 Woking's planning register. Ranks are among the 388 published councils. See planning applications in Woking, appeals, or get alerts for Woking.

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.