Development Intent
AtlasCroydonOfficersAli Douglas
Case officer · Croydon Planning

Ali Douglas.

Recently active — last recorded decision Mar 2025

A case officer at Croydon with an approval rate of 65% across 466 decided planning applications, spanning 16 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer466 decisions65% approvalSave
Croydon · ward map
Approval rate — by ward
Lower ~68%
Higher ~90%
ShowingAll years · subscriber →across all years on record — a period re-scopes the headline figures and the trend
At a glanceEach metric links to the investigation behind it
All investigations →
466
Applications
2021–25
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%86%202164%202260%202373%202459%2025
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate65% · 52nd of 83
higher is betterdashed = London avg
Decision time · publishes with decision notices
in development
Appeal overturn · publishes with decision notices
in development
How this officer decides — from their own reports30 officer reports parsed
0%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
0%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
0%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
82%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Croydon's average officer

Topic mentions per 1,000 words of their own report text (boilerplate stripped), indexed against all parsed Croydon reports. Attention, not stance.

Materials & detailing
1.91× borough avg
Character & heritage
1.83× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.18× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.11× borough avg

Mark = borough average (1×). Bar capped at 2×.

How they reason — coded from their reports

Douglas's caseload is dominated by outbuildings and rear dormer extensions, and he is distinctive for citing MULTIPLE named neighbouring addresses with rear dormers of similar design in the immediate street to establish an established local character pattern, rather than a single comparator. On the one refusal in the sampled corpus he is precise about distinguishing which of TWO separately affected neighbours would suffer unacceptable harm versus which would not, reaching a split conclusion (harm to two named neighbours, acceptable impact on a third) rather than a single borough-wide finding.

Observable habits

· cites multiple named neighbouring addresses with dormers or extensions of similar design within the immediate street as evidence of an established local character pattern, rather than a single comparator address

· reaches a SPLIT amenity conclusion distinguishing which specific named neighbours would suffer unacceptable harm from a proposal versus which would not, rather than a single blanket finding

· notes explicitly when details/sections demonstrating impact on specific affected neighbouring windows have NOT been submitted, treating the absence as weighing toward refusal

What their reports consistently look for

· multiple named neighbouring addresses with dormers or extensions of similar design establishing an established local character pattern

· which SPECIFIC named neighbours would suffer unacceptable harm from a proposal versus which would experience acceptable impact

· whether sections/details demonstrating the specific impact on affected neighbouring windows have actually been submitted

Assigned Ali Douglas on a live case?What they pay attention to, how they reason, and what their reports consistently look for — so you can address it before they raise it.Subscribe to unlock →
In their own words

There are many rear dormers of similar design and character on houses on Bingham Road, including the immediate neighbours, Nos. 124 and 128.

21/05503/FUL

It is also noted that details and sections indicating the impact of the proposal on these neighbouring windows have not been submitted

21/05596/FUL

Measured from 30 published Croydon officer reports written by this officer, with recited policy boilerplate stripped before any counting. These describe how this officer works and writes — they are not outcome predictions. Every quote is from a named public report.

Policy playbook — what this officer cites[3]

The policies this officer cites most in their own reports — times cited across 30 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DM10Design and character
13 times cited
D3
11 times cited
DM10.6
7 times cited
D12
7 times cited
SP4.1
6 times cited
SP6.4
5 times cited
T5
2 times cited
H1
1 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2021–25.[1] Click the map above to focus this page on a ward, or a row to open the ward.

Recent applications
Address
Reference
Type
Outcome
Date
25/00130/FUL
Full planning permission
Approved
2025-07-04
25/00333/FUL
Full planning permission
Approved
2025-04-24
25/00130/FUL
Full planning permission
Approved
2025-07-04
25/00333/FUL
Full planning permission
Approved
2025-04-24
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 466 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Resi
2. CANOPY PLANNING SERVICES LTD
3. LPR Design
4. THALAM
At a glance
OfficerAli Douglas
BoroughCroydon
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications466 (2021–25)
Approval rate65%
London approval avg81%
Who decides here
GovernmentMayor of LondonCouncilCommitteeOfficersDecisionsApplicantsInspectorate
Related investigations
When committees overrule officers like this one →
How often members depart from officer recommendations, and how those overrides fare at appeal.
How much gets decided without a committee →
The delegated share by borough and officer — where the real power over decisions sits.
Sources & method
  1. [1]Applications decided, approval rate, per-year trend and ward breakdown — London Borough of Croydon planning register and published decision notices, 2021–25. · methodology
  2. [2]Appeal overturn and decision-time benchmarks — Planning Inspectorate (PINS) appeal decisions and application date pairs; not yet computed per officer, shown as a dash until they are. · PINS appeals casework
  3. [3]Condition load — mean effective conditions attached to Croydon decision notices (grant/split), parsed from the published notice text; a borough figure, not yet split per case officer.
  4. [4]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 30 published Croydon officer reports written by this officer, recited policy boilerplate stripped before counting; disposition text coded from their own reasoning with every quote machine-verified verbatim. Descriptive of how they work — not outcome predictions.
Methodology is published in full so every number is traceable to its primary source.