Development Intent
AtlasRichmond Upon ThamesOfficersSarah Griffee
Case officer · Richmond Upon Thames Planning

Sarah Griffee.

Active — last recorded decision Apr 2026

A case officer at Richmond Upon Thames with an approval rate of 76% across 400 decided planning applications, spanning 23 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer400 decisions76% approvalSave
Richmond Upon Thames · 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 →
400
Applications
2020–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%78%202068%202184%202278%202365%2024100%202567%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate76% · 52nd of 67
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 reports233 officer reports parsed
10%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
5%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
5%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
75%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Richmond Upon Thames's average officer

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

Noise & disturbance
3.2× borough avg
Bulk & massing
1.62× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
1.47× borough avg
Character & heritage
1.23× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.23× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Griffee's reports open the design discussion by first establishing the site's heritage status (Building of Townscape Merit, listed, conservation area, or none of these) before assessing the proposal, and she gives weight to an extant fallback position (a prior lawful development certificate) when judging whether a scheme's harm is decisive. Several of her report headers repeat a templated '[Design and Heritage Assets] Neighbour amenity' label even where the body text that follows only addresses one of those two topics.

Observable habits

· opens design assessment by explicitly stating the site's heritage designation status (BTM / listed / conservation area / none) before assessing the specific works

· gives explicit weight to an extant lawful development certificate or fallback position as a factor supporting acceptability of a scheme

· for shopfront/frontage cases, weighs viability/marketing evidence for retained commercial floorspace against the policy presumption to resist loss of A1 floorspace

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: a clear statement of the site's heritage designation (BTM, listed, conservation area, or none) as the first step of the design assessment

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether an extension's height stays below the cill of the first-floor windows as the test for it reading as 'subservient'

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: viability/marketing evidence when a proposal would reduce retail (A1) floorspace, to judge whether the remaining unit stays commercially viable

Assigned Sarah Griffee 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

it is recognised that under application 19/2498/PS192, a lawful development certificate was granted including for a single storey rear extension. As this permission is extant, it is a valid fallback position which shall be given weight in the assessment of this application

20/2065/HOT

the two-storey height is less than that of the host building and the flat roof is of a different design

20/0744/FUL

Policy LP26 does set out that there may be scope for conversion of floorspace to other non-A1 uses provided the commercial use remains of viable size

20/1867/FUL

Measured from 233 published Richmond Upon Thames 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 233 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

D12Teddington School
146 times cited
D4Teddington Station
136 times cited
HC1
113 times cited
LP1
27 times cited
LP8
25 times cited
LP3
21 times cited
LP4
20 times cited
LP21
13 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, 2020–26.[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
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Collective Planning
2. The White House Design Ltd
3. Architecture:WK ltd
4. HSP Garden Buildings Ltd
At a glance
OfficerSarah Griffee
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications400 (2020–26)
Approval rate76%
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 Richmond Upon Thames 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 — Richmond Upon Thames's decision-notice parsing is limited coverage, so no borough or officer figure is shown.
  4. [4]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 233 published Richmond Upon Thames 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.