Development Intent
AtlasCroydonOfficersCarolyn Southall
Case officer · Croydon Planning

Carolyn Southall.

Active — last recorded decision Apr 2026

A case officer at Croydon with an approval rate of 67% across 411 decided planning applications, spanning 24 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer411 decisions67% 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 →
411
Applications
2020–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%76%202173%202266%202359%202471%202561%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate67% · 49th 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 reports98 officer reports parsed
7%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
7%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
2%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
91%
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.

Character & heritage
2.31× borough avg
Materials & detailing
1.36× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
1.35× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.27× borough avg
Bulk & massing
1.15× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Southall's reports run a detailed London Plan Policy D6 bedroom-width test (the 2.75m/2.55m double-bedroom width thresholds, distinct from floor-area alone) on nearly every scheme, and she is precise on refuse-store accessibility measured by the actual physical route (steps, narrow paths, which street the collection point sits on) rather than straight-line distance. She treats a garden subdivision that falls short of the CLP's half-garden-retained default as still acceptable where the retained garden is comparable to neighbouring plots on the same terrace, showing a contextual rather than purely mechanical application of that policy.

Observable habits

· tests bedroom width in exact metres against London Plan Policy D6's 2.75m (principal double) and 2.55m (additional double) thresholds, distinct from and in addition to floor-area compliance

· assesses refuse-store accessibility by the actual physical collection route (steps, narrow paths, which street the store is accessed from) rather than straight-line distance to the highway

· applies the CLP's half-garden-retention default contextually, accepting a shortfall where the retained garden is comparable in scale to neighbouring plots on the same terrace rather than applying the threshold mechanically

What their reports consistently look for

· exact bedroom width in metres tested against Policy D6's 2.75m/2.55m double-bedroom thresholds

· the actual physical route (steps, narrow paths) a refuse store's collection point requires, not just straight-line distance

· whether a retained garden, even short of the policy default, is comparable in scale to neighbouring plots on the same terrace

Assigned Carolyn Southall 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 two bedroom 65.5sqm flat would fail to provide an adequately sized double bedroom at only 10.2 sqm, and being located over two floors, the split level unit would fail to provide the overall gross internal floor area required by D6 F

20/05698/FUL

they would be accessed via steps from Foxley Lane and cannot be collected via the narrow path due to the topography of the site

20/05698/FUL

Measured from 98 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 98 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

D3
23 times cited
DM10Design and character
13 times cited
DM25Sustainable Drainage Systems and reducing flood risk
8 times cited
D6
7 times cited
D4
5 times cited
D12
5 times cited
SP4Urban Design, Heritage and Local Character
4 times cited
D1
3 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
26/01050/HSE
Householder Application
Approved
2026-05-27
26/00573/FUL
Full planning permission
Withdrawn
2026-05-18
26/01050/HSE
Householder Application
Approved
2026-05-27
26/00573/FUL
Full planning permission
Withdrawn
2026-05-18
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 411 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Jameson Architectural Surveyors
2. Walk-in Architecture
3. HB planningserivices
4. The Harvest Partnership
At a glance
OfficerCarolyn Southall
BoroughCroydon
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications411 (2020–26)
Approval rate67%
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 98 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.