Development Intent
AtlasWestminsterOfficersStuart Croll
Case officer · Westminster Planning

Stuart Croll.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Westminster with an approval rate of 94% across 2,396 decided planning applications, spanning 15 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer2,396 decisions94% 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 →
2,396
Applications
2020–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%96%202093%202198%202298%202394%202493%202587%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate94% · 17th 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 reports1851 officer reports parsed
5%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
3%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
2%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
71%
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.

Materials & detailing
1.87× borough avg
Character & heritage
1.74× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.08× borough avg
Energy & sustainability
1.04× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
0.91× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Croll's reports cover a similar central-London listed-building/conservation-area caseload to Mitchell's but with noticeably longer, more explanatory prose on refusals — he sets out the pre-existing streetscape pattern in detail (e.g. the prevailing dwarf-wall-and-railings boundary treatment) before explaining how a specific proposal departs from it. On approvals for minor works (secondary glazing, window/door replacement, plant installations) he is concise and leans on 'minor', 'minimal impact' and 'reversible' as the operative tests. He is comfortable refusing on design grounds even where a use is otherwise acceptable in principle, and separately flags outstanding technical objections (e.g. Waste Project Officer, Environmental Health) as grounds that would need resolving before support could be given.

Observable habits

· on refusals, describes the established streetscape/historic pattern first, then explains the specific way the proposal departs from or disrupts it

· for minor listed-building alterations, tests whether the feature being altered is itself a later, non-original addition before permitting its removal or replacement

· cross-references linked applications explicitly by reference number rather than restating the case ('Linked to 20/00731/ADV')

· cites conditions as the mechanism for resolving outstanding technical concerns (noise reports, bin capacity) rather than refusing outright where the principle is otherwise acceptable

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether an altered/added feature is itself a later, non-original intervention rather than part of the historic fabric

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: the prevailing streetscape pattern (boundary treatment, fenestration style) against which a proposal is judged to conform or depart

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether technical objections (waste, noise) can be resolved by condition rather than requiring refusal

Assigned Stuart Croll 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

These effects would together harm the architectural and historic interests of the listed building and character and appearance of the conservation area; in the absence of public benefits relating to the proposals, permission and listed building consent should therefore be refused in accordance with the Act.

20/00108/FULL

The proposal, to build a new bin store parallel with and in fact forming the front boundary, thereby replacing the railings, would by contrast present a broad expanse of solid wall, coupled with a flat 'roof' over the store.

20/01211/FULL

Whils the proposed secondary glazing is not a characteristic feature of a listed building, it is considered that this is a minor alteration that is reversible and thus would have a minimal impact on the special architectural or historic interest of this listed building.

20/00113/LBC

Measured from 1851 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 1851 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

S28
34 times cited
S25
28 times cited
DES1
21 times cited
DES 5
19 times cited
DES 9
16 times cited
DES 1
13 times cited
ENV 13
11 times cited
DES10
11 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

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
26/02389/FULL
Full Planning Permission Application
Approved
2026-06-05
26/02711/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2026-06-05
26/02389/FULL
Full Planning Permission Application
Approved
2026-06-05
26/02711/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2026-06-05
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 2,396 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Quinn Studio Ltd.
2. PARKER ASSOCIATES LIMITED
3. Archway Building Consultancy Ltd
4. Dalcour Maclaren
At a glance
OfficerStuart Croll
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications2,396 (2020–26)
Approval rate94%
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, 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 — 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 1851 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.