Just looking at the planning decision. It was to convert a house into two flats. House is situated in a Conservation Area.
From the Decision Report by the Planning Inspector in Harringay.
The host property is located within a conservation area, but is located within the Family Housing Protection Zone as designated by DM16 of the Development Management DPD.
6.5 DPD Policy DM16 states that to maintain a supply of larger family homes to meet Haringey’s housing need, the Council will only permit the conversion of a larger home(s) to small self-contained homes (Class C3) where the gross original internal floor space of the existing dwelling is greater than 120m2;
6.6 Conversions within the Family Housing Protection Zone will only be considered acceptable where they comply with criteria above and result in no net loss in the number of family sized units. The Development Management DPD defines family sized units as those having 3 or more bedrooms.
So, while they don't advocate the conversion of a family home into smaller units whereby it would result in a net loss of a family sized home, they also state that there is a target to increases the provision of homes (which covers the area) and this has not been reached. Also, DL's property seems to be just within the large enough 120M square, and resulting with three bedrooms being included in one of the new flats.
There were 6 objections and the decision was made using delegated powers, not going to the Planning Committee. One objection was moot as it was about a house of multiple occupancy (which the two flats in one house are not).One of the flats will have three bedrooms, which enters out into the garden. As three bedrooms is the minimum for something to be classified as a family home, then there is theoretically no net loss of family homes resulting from the conversion of the house into two smaller flats. The new 3 bedroomed flat will obviously be roughly half the size of the original family home, but in theory classed as no net loss.
I have read a comment that DL fought against the conversion of the houses into flats when he lived in the area. I don't know if this is true or not. He has happily moved away in any case, so it wouldn't bother him in his new abode.
The application was by an agent but the applicant appears to be down under his wife's name.
So, on the face of it, it seems to be straightforward enough. I don't know if there would be a less generous interpretation of policies towards converting a Conservation Area family homes in Haringey, in the case on another applicant. I'd imagine future applicants will kick up a fuss if there were more rigid interpretations in the spirit of protecting the character of the area going forward. However, it seems there were no Councillor involvement (put into writing to the planning section anyway). There was a pre-application meeting with the Planning section.