Development Intent
AtlasCroydonOfficersGrace Hewett
Case officer · Croydon Planning

Grace Hewett.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Croydon with an approval rate of 59% across 719 decided planning applications, spanning 26 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer719 decisions59% 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 →
719
Applications
2020–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%74%202053%202156%202255%202350%202470%202568%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate59% · 62nd 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 reports361 officer reports parsed
5%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
4%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
1%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
78%
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.

Noise & disturbance
1.84× borough avg
Materials & detailing
1.56× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.23× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.18× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
1.08× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Hewett's reports run heavily on flat conversions and small-scale change-of-use applications, and her prose is unusually precise on the Croydon Local Plan's small-family-home tests (DM1.2's 130sqm/3-bed net-loss threshold, SP2.7's 30% family-home target), routinely stating the host dwelling's exact 'as originally built' floor area in square metres before concluding whether a conversion complies. She refuses on internal principle even where the physical scheme itself would be acceptable (20/00741/FUL: extension previously assessed as not harmful, refused anyway for the net loss of a 3-bed unit under Policy DM1), suggesting she treats the housing-mix policy test as a genuinely independent gate rather than folding it into an overall balance.

Observable habits

· states the host dwelling's exact internal floor area in sqm 'as originally built' before testing it against DM1/DM1.2's 130sqm and 3-bed thresholds, rather than describing the dwelling size only qualitatively

· separates 'Principle of the Proposed Development' from the physical/amenity tests as its own independent paragraph, and will recommend refusal on the principle test alone even when the physical scheme is assessed as acceptable

· on GPDO/Lawful Development Certificate refusals, cites the specific Schedule 2 Class/Paragraph letter (e.g. 'Paragraph A.1 (f) (i) of Class A, Part 1, Schedule 2') rather than a general non-compliance statement

What their reports consistently look for

· the host dwelling's precise internal floor area as originally built, tested directly against the DM1.2 130sqm/3-bed net-loss threshold

· whether a re-provided unit genuinely meets the SP2.7 30% family-home (3+ bed) strategic target rather than merely retaining unit count

· the exact Schedule 2 Class/Paragraph citation a GPDO scheme fails, rather than a general 'does not comply' statement

Assigned Grace Hewett 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 property (as originally built) is considered to be a 3-bedroom small family dwellinghouse. 5.4 Furthermore, the proposal fails to re-provide an equivalent 3-bedroom unit and it is thus considered that the proposed conversion would result in the loss of small family housing and is contrary to Policy DM1

20/00741/FUL

The proposed single-storey rear/side extension would extend beyond the rear wall of the original dwellinghouse by 7.40m and would thus not comply with the criteria of Paragraph A.1 (f) (i) of Class A, Part 1, Schedule 2

20/01727/LP

Measured from 361 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 361 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

D3
42 times cited
DM10Design and character
39 times cited
DM10.1
35 times cited
7.4
29 times cited
7.6
29 times cited
7.1
19 times cited
7.5
18 times cited
DM1.2
18 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
26/01034/HSE
Householder Application
Approved
2026-05-27
26/00982/HSE
Householder Application
Approved
2026-05-19
26/01034/HSE
Householder Application
Approved
2026-05-27
26/00982/HSE
Householder Application
Approved
2026-05-19
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 719 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Canopy Planning Services Ltd
2. Planning Additions
3. Michael Jack Architects
4. Mono Consultants Ltd
At a glance
OfficerGrace Hewett
BoroughCroydon
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications719 (2020–26)
Approval rate59%
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 361 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.