Development Intent
AtlasHarrowOfficersJohn Lo
Case officer · Harrow Planning

John Lo.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Harrow with an approval rate of 82% across 28 decided planning applications, spanning 17 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer28 decisions82% approvalSave
Harrow · 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 →
28
Applications
2025–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%100%202577%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate82% · 17th of 72
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 reports65 officer reports parsed
0%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
0%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
0%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
61%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Harrow's average officer

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

Materials & detailing
1.02× borough avg
Character & heritage
1× borough avg
Trees & landscape
0.74× borough avg
Transport & parking
0.48× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Lo's corpus is overwhelmingly Certificate of Lawful Development applications under GPDO Classes A, B and E, worked through the statutory limitation clauses in strict lettered order with an explicit Yes/No/N/A answer against each before any narrative commentary. He is notably precise about internal inconsistency between submitted drawings (block plan vs floor plan) as a standalone ground for concluding a scheme falls outside the permitted development curtilage test.

Observable habits

· works through GPDO Class limitation clauses in strict lettered order (a, b, c, d...) with an explicit Yes/No/N/A answer against each before any narrative

· flags internal inconsistency between different submitted drawing types (block plan vs floor plan) as a standalone basis for finding non-compliance

· for Article 4 Direction sites, quotes the specific wording of the Direction ('where development fronts a highway, waterway or open space') verbatim before applying it

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: an explicit Yes/No/N/A answer against every individual lettered GPDO limitation clause before any narrative discussion

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether the submitted block plan and floor plan agree on the exact siting of the development within the curtilage boundary

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: the precise wording of an Article 4 Direction before applying it to a specific site

Assigned John Lo 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 application contains inconsistent and conflicting information in relation to the site boundaries and the siting of the proposed development within it

PL/3192/25

where development fronts a highway, waterway or open space

PL/2846/25

Measured from 65 published Harrow 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 65 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

D3
3 times cited
D11
3 times cited
D12
3 times cited
D4
2 times cited
GR1
1 times cited
GR3B
1 times cited
CN4
1 times cited
HC1
1 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2025–26.[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
PL/3351/25
Householder
Approved
2026-06-03
PL/1338/26
Householder
2026-05-14
PL/3351/25
Householder
Approved
2026-06-03
PL/1338/26
Householder
2026-05-14
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Tricon Design
2. KRN Design Studio
3. SSK Architects Ltd
4. KDA Designs LTD
At a glance
OfficerJohn Lo
BoroughHarrow
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications28 (2025–26)
Approval rate82%
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 Harrow planning register and published decision notices, 2025–26. · 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 Harrow 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 65 published Harrow 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.