Shaun Retzback.
Active — last recorded decision May 2026
A case officer at Westminster with an approval rate of 90% across 464 decided planning applications, spanning 5 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.
Topic mentions per 1,000 words of their own report text (boilerplate stripped), indexed against all parsed Westminster reports. Attention, not stance.
Mark = borough average (1×). Bar capped at 2×.
Retzback's caseload includes a distinct specialism in Certificate of Lawful Development applications (both proposed-use GPDO permitted-development certificates and existing-use 10-year-immunity certificates), alongside office/retail floorspace extensions in the Core CAZ. On CLEUD work his reasoning is evidentiary rather than design-led: he weighs statutory declarations from named individuals, business rates/council tax records, and prior planning history as proof of a use's duration, and explicitly cites comparable appeal decisions from elsewhere in Westminster (and occasionally other boroughs) as persuasive precedent for how a use class should be characterised. On office/retail extensions he leans on the City Plan's strategic floorspace targets (S20's office floorspace target, S6's Core CAZ mixed-use role) as the framing policy driver rather than site-specific design first.
· on CLEUD applications, weighs statutory declarations from named individuals (with their role and length of association with the premises) as the primary evidence, alongside business rates/council tax records
· cites comparable Planning Inspectorate appeal decisions (sometimes from other London boroughs) as persuasive precedent for how a use or activity should be classified
· frames office/retail floorspace extensions against the City Plan's strategic floorspace targets and CAZ policy role before considering site-specific design
· records design amendments made during the application in response to the Design Officer's specific concerns, naming the officer role rather than just 'concerns were raised'
· what this officer's reports consistently look for: named statutory declarations with the declarant's role and length of association, plus independent corroborating records (business rates, prior planning history)
· what this officer's reports consistently look for: a directly comparable Inspectorate appeal decision on a similar use/premises to anchor the use-class judgement
· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a floorspace increase serves the City Plan's stated strategic office/CAZ targets
“The Inspector concluded in their appeal decision that the use at 105 Baker Street overall is consistent with Class A1 of the Order and agree that there is an element of other activity within the appellant's format.”
20/00208/CLEUD
“The City Council has no evidence which contradicts the information submitted regarding the use of the premises.”
20/00524/CLEUD
“The proposal has been amended throughout the course of this application to address concerns with the front facade of the building raised by the Design Officer.”
20/00376/FULL
Measured from 348 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.
The policies this officer cites most in their own reports — times cited across 348 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.
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.
- [1]Applications decided, approval rate, per-year trend and ward breakdown — London Borough of Westminster planning register and published decision notices, 2020–26. · methodology
- [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]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]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 348 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.