Development Intent
AtlasRichmond Upon ThamesOfficersGeorge Sellers
Case officer · Richmond Upon Thames Planning

George Sellers.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Richmond Upon Thames with an approval rate of 80% across 206 decided planning applications, spanning 9 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer206 decisions80% approvalSave
Richmond Upon Thames · 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 →
206
Applications
2024–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%78%202586%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate80% · 38th of 67
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 reports156 officer reports parsed
7%
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
53%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Richmond Upon Thames's average officer

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

Daylight & sunlight
3.79× borough avg
Bulk & massing
2.81× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.96× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
1.39× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.37× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Sellers writes discursive, site-specific design paragraphs that place a scheme against named neighbouring properties and streets (e.g. 'Byfield Road', 'the opposite side of Ferry Road') to justify departures from SPD guidance on the basis of local precedent, and he quotes at length from a previous refused scheme's officer report or appeal decision when a revised application returns to committee.

Observable habits

· quotes verbatim from an earlier officer report or appeal decision on the same site before assessing the new/revised scheme against it

· justifies non-compliance with SPD numeric guidance (e.g. full-width dormers, exceeding recommended depth) by pointing to specific named neighbouring streets or properties with similar features

· separates a habitable-room amenity assessment by estimating a neighbour's internal room size/use from available plans on file when the interior layout is not known

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a dormer or extension leaves an adequate margin of original roof/wall visible on either side per SPD guidance

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: local precedent on the same street for a non-compliant feature (e.g. full-width dormers) as justification for acceptability

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: which specific neighbouring windows serve habitable rooms, to determine whether a fence or extension height increases sense of enclosure

Assigned George Sellers 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

It is recognised the that height of the boundary wall already creates a sense of enclosure at the constrained side return of this neighbouring property, which makes it sensitive to any material worsening of that situation.

24/3228/HOT

Assuming the kitchen is of similar dimensions to that of the neighbours, for which the LPA have plans on file, it would be in excess of 16sqm and be considered a habitable room for the purposes of an amenity assessment.

24/3228/HOT

Measured from 156 published Richmond Upon Thames 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 156 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

D12Teddington School
132 times cited
HC1
31 times cited
D4Teddington Station
20 times cited
CA30
8 times cited
CA5
7 times cited
CA17
7 times cited
CA1
7 times cited
CA15
6 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Recent applications
Address
Reference
Type
Outcome
Date
PA26/1131
Householder Application
Approved
2026-05-29
PA26/1117
Householder Application
No determination
2026-05-27
PA26/1131
Householder Application
Approved
2026-05-29
PA26/1117
Householder Application
No determination
2026-05-27
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 206 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Heritage Potential
2. Claire Totman Designs Ltd
3. PF2 Architects LLP
4. Place Architecture and Design Ltd.
At a glance
OfficerGeorge Sellers
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications206 (2024–26)
Approval rate80%
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 Richmond Upon Thames planning register and published decision notices, 2024–26. · 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 — Richmond Upon Thames's decision-notice parsing is limited coverage, so no borough or officer figure is shown.
  4. [4]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 156 published Richmond Upon Thames 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.