Development Intent
AtlasCroydonOfficersGeorge Clarke
Case officer · Croydon Planning

George Clarke.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Croydon with an approval rate of 48% across 508 decided planning applications, spanning 23 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer508 decisions48% 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 →
508
Applications
2020–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%52%202055%202147%202222%202345%202469%202533%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate48% · 77th 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 reports277 officer reports parsed
4%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
0%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
1%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
90%
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.

Transport & parking
1.5× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
1.25× borough avg
Trees & landscape
1.03× borough avg
Materials & detailing
0.99× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
0.96× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Clarke's corpus concentrates on backland/rear-garden development and terraced-house alterations, and his reports are notably precise on the Suburban Design Guide's numeric subservience tests — separation distances in exact metres between a new backland dwelling and the host building, and height step-downs measured in metres rather than described qualitatively. He is willing to support the principle of backland housing supply while still refusing on the SDG's specific gap/height tests, treating the two as genuinely separate hurdles (20/01256/FUL, 20/01143/FUL).

Observable habits

· separates 'Principle' (housing-supply acceptability) from 'Character and appearance'/'Impact upon neighbours' as distinct headed tests, and will support the former while still refusing on the latter

· cites the Suburban Design Guide's specific metre thresholds for backland development (15m gap to host dwelling, height step-down in metres) rather than a general overdevelopment/harm statement

· on repeat rear-extension refusals at the same address, measures the exact projection distance past the neighbour's nearest habitable-room window in metres before concluding harm

What their reports consistently look for

· the exact metre gap between a proposed backland dwelling and its host building, tested against the Suburban Design Guide's 15m/18m thresholds

· the precise height step-down in metres a backland scheme achieves relative to the host dwelling it sits behind

· the exact projection distance in metres past a neighbour's nearest ground-floor habitable-room window before concluding loss of light/outlook

Assigned George Clarke 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

The Council's Suburban Design Guide requires a gap of 15m from the host dwelling to a back land development with the intention of maintaining adequate levels of privacy and outlook for existing dwellings

20/01256/FUL

the proposal would extend past the nearest ground floor rear facing habitable room window at Number 8 by approximately 9 metres

20/01784/HSE

Measured from 277 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 277 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DM10Design and character
65 times cited
SP8Transport and Communication
58 times cited
DM30Car and cycle parking in development
57 times cited
DM29Promoting sustainable travel and reducing congestion
54 times cited
SP6Environment and Climate Change
33 times cited
DM23Development and construction
33 times cited
7.6
28 times cited
7.4
22 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–26.[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
25/02327/FUL
Full planning permission
Approved
2026-06-03
25/02327/FUL
Full planning permission
Approved
2026-06-03
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 508 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Extending My Home Ltd
2. Planners & Architects
3. CANOPY PLANNING SERVICES LTD
4. Mono Consultants Ltd
At a glance
OfficerGeorge Clarke
BoroughCroydon
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications508 (2020–26)
Approval rate48%
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, 2020–26. · 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 277 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.