Development Intent
AtlasSouthwarkOfficersSean Gomes
Planning Atlas›Southwark›Sean Gomes
Case officer · Southwark Planning

Sean Gomes.

Active — last recorded decision Apr 2026

A case officer at Southwark with an approval rate of 88% across 231 decided planning applications, spanning 23 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer231 decisions88% 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 →
231
Applications
2021–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%89%202286%202385%202490%2025100%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compare — Versus peers
Approval rate88% · 47th 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 reports221 officer reports parsed
15%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
10%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
14%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
66%
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.

Precedent & consistency
2.04× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
1.95× borough avg
Trees & landscape
1.61× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.6× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.42× borough avg

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

Assigned Sean Gomes 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

“when examining the proposal 05/AP/2094 the 5th storey was of smaller scale/massing than the proposed and was still consequently refused”

the applications proposed a 5 storey building

“it is regrettable that this decision partially contradicts the pre-application advice provided under 21/EQ/0116”

the applications proposed a 5 storey building

Measured from 221 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 221 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

P14Design quality
124 times cited
P56Protection of amenity
124 times cited
P15Residential
90 times cited
P13Design of places
65 times cited
P18Efficient use of land
57 times cited
P20Conservation areas
38 times cited
D12
37 times cited
P21Conservation of the historic environment and
34 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward
Ward
Decisions
Approval rate
25
96%
25
86%
21
95%
19
75%
17
86%
13
92%
13
91%
13
75%
12
100%
12
92%
8
75%
7
86%
7
83%
5
100%
5
100%
5
100%
4
50%
4
100%
4
100%
4
100%
3
100%
3
67%
2
50%
25
96%
25
86%
21
95%
Show all 23 rows
19
75%
17
86%
13
92%
13
91%
13
75%
12
100%
12
92%
8
75%
7
86%
7
83%
5
100%
5
100%
5
100%
4
50%
4
100%
4
100%
4
100%
3
100%
3
67%
2
50%

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2021–26.[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/AP/3492
Minor application
Approved
2026-06-09
24/AP/3056
Minor application
Approved
2026-05-13
25/AP/3492
Minor application
Approved
2026-06-09
24/AP/3056
Minor application
Approved
2026-05-13
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 231 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Design Squared Ltd
2. The Art of Building Ltd
3. Baily Garner
4. Firstplan
At a glance
OfficerSean Gomes
BoroughSouthwark
RolePlanning officer
Experience—
Applications231 (2021–26)
Approval rate88%
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, 2021–26. · 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 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 221 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.