Development Intent
AtlasWestminsterOfficersPaul Quayle
Case officer · Westminster Planning

Paul Quayle.

Recently active — last recorded decision Jun 2025

A case officer at Westminster with an approval rate of 100% across 93 decided planning applications, spanning 3 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer93 decisions100% approvalSave
Westminster · 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 →
93
Applications
2020–25
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%100%2020100%2021100%2022100%2023100%2024100%2025
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate100% · 2nd of 76
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 reports72 officer reports parsed
12%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
10%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
1%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
94%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Westminster's average officer

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

Transport & parking
1.72× borough avg
Precedent & consistency
1.4× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
1.01× borough avg
Trees & landscape
0.99× borough avg
Energy & sustainability
0.97× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Quayle's caseload includes major infrastructure (Crossrail-linked ventilation) and Grade I listed casework where he traces a proposal's precise design and use history through multiple linked permissions on the same/adjoining sites over 15+ years, and distinguishes a listed interior's areas of 'least special interest' (already modernised decades earlier) from principal historic spaces before permitting internal rearrangement. He is comfortable removing a contested element (replacement plant) from an application specifically to resolve a neighbour objection, deferring it to a separate future application rather than letting it hold up the rest of the scheme.

Observable habits

· traces a proposal's precise design and use history through multiple linked permissions on the same or adjoining sites, often spanning 15+ years, before assessing the current change

· distinguishes a listed interior's areas of 'least special interest' (already modernised decades earlier) from principal historic spaces before permitting internal rearrangement

· removes a specific contested element (replacement plant) from an application to resolve a neighbour objection, deferring it to a separate future application rather than holding up the rest of the scheme

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: a proposal's precise design and use history traced through multiple linked permissions, often spanning many years

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether the specific part of a listed interior being altered is already modernised (least special interest) or retains principal historic character

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a specific contested element can be removed from an application to resolve an objection, deferred to a future separate submission

Assigned Paul Quayle 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 three affected floors are of least special interest

20/06728/FULL

Proposals to replace this plant have been deleted from the application, as detailed above. New applications just for the replacement unit will be submitted separately in due course

20/06728/FULL

Measured from 72 published Westminster 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 72 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DES1
2 times cited
T5
2 times cited
MD1
2 times cited
MD2
2 times cited
MD3
2 times cited
MD4
2 times cited
S41
1 times cited
DES5
1 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward
Ward
Decisions
Approval rate

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–25.[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
25/01978/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2025-06-30
23/01622/FULL
Full Planning Permission Application
Withdrawn
2025-06-11
25/01978/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2025-06-30
23/01622/FULL
Full Planning Permission Application
Withdrawn
2025-06-11
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 93 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Gerald Eve LLP
2. Montagu Evans LLP
3. Savills
4. Barton Willmore
At a glance
OfficerPaul Quayle
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications93 (2020–25)
Approval rate100%
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 Westminster planning register and published decision notices, 2020–25. · 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 Westminster 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 72 published Westminster 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.