Development Intent
AtlasWaltham ForestOfficersSarah Creasy
Case officer · Waltham Forest Planning

Sarah Creasy.

Recently active — last recorded decision Aug 2025

A case officer at Waltham Forest with an approval rate of 71% across 325 decided planning applications, spanning 14 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer325 decisions71% approvalSave
Waltham Forest · 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 →
325
Applications
2022–25
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%85%202365%202471%2025100%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate71% · 32nd of 49
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 reports61 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
67%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
How they reason — coded from their reports

Creasy's caseload spans GPDO Class A/B certificates and full householder applications, and she is distinctive for running a genuinely forensic cross-plan consistency audit on contested applications — comparing the exact stated depth and height across MULTIPLE different submitted drawings (section, elevation, roof plan) sheet by sheet and flagging every numerical discrepancy between them, before concluding the application cannot be properly assessed and should be refused for inaccurate/inconsistent plans rather than on the underlying planning merits. On retrospective Certificate of Lawfulness applications she applies the section 191(4)/191(2) 'sufficiently precise and unambiguous' evidential standard rigorously, finding blurry or illegible submitted photographic evidence insufficient even where supplemented by Google Earth aerial imagery.

Observable habits

· cross-checks the exact stated depth and height figures across MULTIPLE different submitted drawing sheets (section, elevation, roof plan) sheet by sheet, flagging every specific numerical discrepancy between them rather than accepting the application form's headline figures

· concludes that genuinely inconsistent/inaccurate plans mean the application 'could not be properly assessed' and recommends refusal on that procedural ground, distinct from and prior to any substantive amenity or design judgement

· on retrospective Certificate of Lawfulness applications, applies the section 191(4)/191(2) 'sufficiently precise and unambiguous' evidential standard rigorously, finding blurry or illegible photographic evidence insufficient even where aerial imagery is also available

What their reports consistently look for

· whether the exact stated depth and height figures are consistent across every submitted drawing sheet (section, elevation, roof plan), flagging any numerical discrepancy

· whether inconsistent or inaccurate plans mean a genuine planning-merits assessment cannot be properly made at all

· whether retrospective photographic or other evidence meets the section 191(4)/191(2) 'sufficiently precise and unambiguous' standard, rather than being merely suggestive

Assigned Sarah Creasy 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 significant inconsistencies found across both existing and proposed plans as part of this application, it is considered a thorough and adequate assessment of the proposed development could not be made

241673

these screenshots are blurry and illegible and therefore do not prove that the construction occurred over 4 years ago

242987

Measured from 61 published Waltham Forest 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 61 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

79Biodiversity and Geodiversity
26 times cited
53Delivering High Quality Design
9 times cited
57Amenity
7 times cited
DM4
5 times cited
DM29
5 times cited
56Residential Space Standards
5 times cited
CS2
4 times cited
CS15
3 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, 2022–25.[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
251737
Householder Planning
Approved
2026-01-21
241324
Full Planning
Refused
2025-11-10
251737
Householder Planning
Approved
2026-01-21
241324
Full Planning
Refused
2025-11-10
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Civils Consulting Ltd
2. Resi Design Ltd
3. BLUELINE ARCHITECTURAL CONSULTANTS LTD
4. LONDON CONSULTANTS LTD
At a glance
OfficerSarah Creasy
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications325 (2022–25)
Approval rate71%
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 Waltham Forest planning register and published decision notices, 2022–25. · 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 Waltham Forest 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 61 published Waltham Forest 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.