Development Intent
AtlasSouthwarkOfficersAnthony Roberts
Case officer · Southwark Planning

Anthony Roberts.

Last recorded decision Dec 2022 — no decisions in this record since

A case officer at Southwark with an approval rate of 94% across 321 decided planning applications, spanning 23 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer321 decisions94% approvalSave
Southwark · 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 →
321
Applications
2020–22
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%94%202094%202194%2022
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate94% · 21st of 79
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 reports257 officer reports parsed
5%
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
48%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Southwark's average officer

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

Privacy & overlooking
2.44× borough avg
Bulk & massing
1.8× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.7× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
1.23× borough avg
Character & heritage
0.63× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Roberts assesses rear/dormer extensions by directly comparing the proposal's impact against ALREADY EXISTING conditions at the boundary — an existing large extension on one side that already blocks light, an existing gap distance — rather than assessing the new development in isolation. He records specific design-team requests (set-in distance, roof material) and notes when a scheme proceeds despite not fully meeting them.

Observable habits

· measures a new extension's amenity impact against what ALREADY exists at that boundary (an existing large extension, an existing gap) rather than in isolation

· records the design and conservation team's specific requested changes (e.g. a named set-in distance, a roof material) and whether the applicant complied

· concludes that failure to meet a design team's specific request does not itself justify refusal when the impact is otherwise modest

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: what ALREADY exists at the shared boundary (an existing extension, an existing gap) as the baseline for judging new impact

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether the design and conservation team's specific requested amendment (set-in, roof material) was met, and if not, whether that alone justifies refusal

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: technical/maintenance reasons an applicant gives for not following a design request (e.g. wind uplift ruling out roof tiles)

Assigned Anthony Roberts 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

Any loss of light would already exist from the large extension at No.11 which towers over the application site outrigger

20/AP/0048

for maintenance purposes his client did not want a flat roof due to the shallow pitch of the roof it is not possible to specify roofing tiles

20/AP/0169

Measured from 257 published Southwark 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 257 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

13Other locations of tall buildings
158 times cited
D4Good
66 times cited
HC1Paragraph Heritage
55 times cited
P56Protection of amenity
53 times cited
P14Design quality
52 times cited
P15Residential
50 times cited
P18Efficient use of land
31 times cited
P20Conservation areas
22 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–22.[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
22/AP/3844
Minor application
Approved
2022-12-16
22/AP/3853
Householder Application
Approved
2022-12-16
22/AP/3844
Minor application
Approved
2022-12-16
22/AP/3853
Householder Application
Approved
2022-12-16
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Resi
2. Design Squared Ltd
3. TheArtOfBuilding
4. Classic Lofts London
At a glance
OfficerAnthony Roberts
BoroughSouthwark
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications321 (2020–22)
Approval rate94%
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 Southwark planning register and published decision notices, 2020–22. · 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 Southwark 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 257 published Southwark 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.