Development Intent
AtlasWestminsterOfficersMorgan Cheung
Case officer · Westminster Planning

Morgan Cheung.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Westminster with an approval rate of 93% across 356 decided planning applications, spanning 6 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer356 decisions93% approvalSave
Westminster · 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 →
356
Applications
2022–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%96%202288%202390%202499%202591%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate93% · 26th of 76
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 reports275 officer reports parsed
17%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
15%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
4%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
82%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Westminster's average officer

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

Flooding & drainage
2.96× borough avg
Energy & sustainability
1.67× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
1.51× borough avg
Transport & parking
1.29× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
1.22× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Cheung's caseload spans Covent Garden retail Use Class E lawful-use certificates and Pimlico/Millbank townhouse extension work under the newer numbered City Plan. On CLEUD/lawful-use cases she applies a 'balance of probability' evidentiary standard explicitly, weighing the applicant's business-rates and planning-history evidence against whatever the Council can independently corroborate, and issues the certificate once satisfied on balance rather than requiring certainty. On residential basement extensions she is thorough on flood risk, checking the specific flood zone, the standard of tidal defence protection, and whether the proposed use (kitchen versus sleeping accommodation) and retained access to a higher floor materially change the risk profile.

Observable habits

· on CLEUD/lawful-use certificates, states the evidentiary standard explicitly ('on the balance of probability') and weighs applicant evidence against the Council's own independent corroboration (business rates, prior planning history)

· checks a basement/lower-ground extension's specific flood zone, the standard of tidal/surface-water defence, and whether the proposed use and retained escape route materially change the flood risk profile

· assesses whether an extension's roof lantern/rooflight is genuinely unusable for looking-out before ruling out an overlooking concern, rather than assuming any glazing creates a privacy issue

· distinguishes a 'townscape merit' unlisted building's contribution to a conservation area from its formal heritage status when scoping the design test

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: independent corroboration (business rates, prior planning history) for an applicant's claimed use, weighed on the balance of probability

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: the specific flood zone and defence standard for a basement extension, and whether the proposed use materially changes the flood risk

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a rooflight/lantern is genuinely usable for looking out before treating it as an overlooking concern

Assigned Morgan Cheung 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 applicant's evidence demonstrates that, on the balance of probability, since the 1995 permissions were implemented the site has been used for retail purpose - which is being in line with what were approved.

22/01035/CLEUD

Given that the roof lantern is too high for anyone to look out of, it would not result in any amenity concern in terms of overlooking.

22/01159/FULL

The extension would not be used for sleeping accommodation and access to a higher floor in the event of a flood would be retained. In these circumstances, the proposals would not result in a materially different flood risk as compared to the current situation.

22/01159/FULL

Measured from 275 published Westminster 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 275 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

T5
8 times cited
PIM 3
4 times cited
PIM3e
4 times cited
T6
4 times cited
PIM 4
3 times cited
PIM 1
2 times cited
SI 3
2 times cited
D12
2 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2022–26.[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
26/00062/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2026-06-02
26/00061/FULL
Full Planning Permission Application
Approved
2026-06-02
26/00062/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2026-06-02
26/00061/FULL
Full Planning Permission Application
Approved
2026-06-02
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 356 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Gerald Eve LLP
2. Lewis Stroud Architects Ltd
3. Firstplan
4. Montagu Evans
At a glance
OfficerMorgan Cheung
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications356 (2022–26)
Approval rate93%
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 Westminster planning register and published decision notices, 2022–26. · 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 Westminster 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 275 published Westminster 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.