Development Intent
AtlasHackneyOfficersClive Theobald
Case officer · Hackney Planning

Clive Theobald.

Recently active — last recorded decision Nov 2024

A case officer at Hackney with an approval rate of 79% across 56 decided planning applications, spanning 16 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer56 decisions79% approvalSave
Hackney · 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 →
56
Applications
2020–24
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%50%202379%202490%2025
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate79% · 25th of 52
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 reports36 officer reports parsed
5%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
11%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
0%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
78%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Hackney's average officer

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

Energy & sustainability
5.03× borough avg
Trees & landscape
2.59× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.52× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
1.49× borough avg
Transport & parking
1.44× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Theobald's refusals are structured as a numbered list of distinct, independently sufficient reasons (each citing its own separate policy set), and his larger-scheme reports tabulate the full unit schedule (bedroom count, floor area, amenity area) alongside the applicable London Plan/LP33 space standard for direct comparison.

Observable habits

· structures a refusal as a numbered list of independently sufficient reasons, each citing its own distinct policy set

· tabulates the full unit-by-unit schedule (bedrooms, GIA, amenity area) directly against the applicable space standard for side-by-side comparison

· names the specific ecological survey type (bat activity survey, preliminary ecological assessment) and quantifies the resulting biodiversity percentage uplift

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: each refusal reason standing independently, citing its own distinct policy set rather than one blended justification

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: a full unit-by-unit tabulation of bedrooms/GIA/amenity area set directly against the applicable space standard

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: the specific named ecological survey type and the quantified percentage biodiversity uplift it demonstrates

Assigned Clive Theobald 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

1- The outbuilding, by reason of its position, massing, scale and detailed design, would result in an incongruous, unneighbourly and unsympathetic addition that would be detrimental to the character and appearance of the application site and wider area.

2020/3864

2- Insufficient information has been submitted with this application to allow the local planning authority to undertake a full and proper assessment of whether the identified noise mitigation measures are achievable and feasible, to the detriment of the amenity and living conditions of adjoining residents

2020/3864

Flat No. Accommodation Floor Area (m2) London Plan Amenity Space London Plan Standard (m2) (m2) Standard (m2) 1 3B 6P 131.3 95 115.8 9 2 1B 2P 68.2 50 43.7 5

2023/2671

The bat survey has identified a likely absence of roosting bats at the site and has recommended a watched brief during work. The PEA states that the proposal would deliver a 320% increase in the site's biodiversity value

2023/2671

Measured from 36 published Hackney 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 36 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

LP33Hackney Central and Dalston
24 times cited
HC1Allocation: Mixed use
8 times cited
LP3Designated Heritage Assets
7 times cited
D1130 Kingsland High Street and site to the rear 130A Kingsland High
5 times cited
D3Allocation: Mixed-use including residential
5 times cited
D4Allocation: Mixed-use including residential
5 times cited
LP1Part A will be applied having regard to the scale and location of the
5 times cited
LP4Non Designated Heritage Assets
4 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–24.[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
2021/2979
Full Planning Permission
Approved
2025-06-27
2021/3367
Full Planning Permission
Approved
2025-06-11
2021/2979
Full Planning Permission
Approved
2025-06-27
2021/3367
Full Planning Permission
Approved
2025-06-11
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 56 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Cook Townsend Chartered Architects
2. MDM Planning Limited
3. SAM Planning services
4. Savills
At a glance
OfficerClive Theobald
BoroughHackney
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications56 (2020–24)
Approval rate79%
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 Hackney planning register and published decision notices, 2020–24. · 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 Hackney 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 36 published Hackney 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.