How long planning decisions take in Lake District National Park

Rolling twelve month windows overlap by nine months, so this reads as a trend rather than as four separate quarters. Only windows our records reach far enough back to measure in full are listed.

Against the same twelve months a year earlier, when the median was 55 days, Lake District National Park has moved up 58 places in the table.

The headline median mixes every kind of application together. A householder extension and an outline application for a housing site are not the same job, and the difference between them is usually larger than the difference between two councils.

1. Other 11 decided 28 days
2. Prior approval 134 decided 28 days
3. Trees 495 decided 37 days
4. Amendments 155 decided 46 days
5. Conditions 210 decided 55 days
6. Lawful development 123 decided 55 days
7. Full applications 720 decided 63 days
8. Householder 261 decided 64 days
9. Outline 15 decided 67 days
10. Advertising 36 decided 69 days
11. Heritage and listed buildings 140 decided 72 days

How these types compare nationally

Lake District National Park issued 2,440 decisions in the year to September 2026. Of the clear-cut outcomes, 92% were approvals: 1,893 granted against 172 refused. Split decisions, withdrawals and other outcomes sit outside that percentage rather than being counted as either.

Speed and approval rate are separate things. A council that refuses quickly is not doing the same job as one that negotiates an approval slowly, and neither figure alone says which served the applicant better.