Development Intent
AtlasBarnetOfficersZakera Matin
Case officer · Barnet Planning

Zakera Matin.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Barnet with an approval rate of 59% across 524 decided planning applications, spanning 28 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer524 decisions59% approvalSave
Barnet · 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 →
524
Applications
2020–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%59%202063%202169%202260%202357%202439%202557%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate59% · 82nd of 85
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 reports174 officer reports parsed
25%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
0%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
5%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
50%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Barnet's average officer

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

Transport & parking
1.63× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
1.47× borough avg
Energy & sustainability
1.35× borough avg
Character & heritage
1.3× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
1.28× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Matin runs a mixed caseload with a genuinely high refusal share for a Barnet officer, and her reasoning on backland/garden development is unusually explicit about distinguishing a cited comparable by its planning HISTORY rather than its present appearance ('that dwelling was granted permission under 14/07456/FUL for Change of use of office... not comparable... in principle'). On amenity space schemes she cites the specific SPD paragraph defining what counts as USABLE outdoor space, actively excluding driveways and hardstanding from the calculation rather than accepting the applicant's own figure.

Observable habits

· distinguishes a cited comparable precedent by its underlying PLANNING HISTORY (how it was originally permitted) rather than just its current built form

· actively recalculates 'usable' outdoor amenity space by excluding driveways, hardstanding and refuse areas per the SPD definition, rather than accepting the applicant's submitted figure

· frames backland refusals around disruption to the 'established spatial pattern of development' as a named test, distinct from a simple character-harm finding

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a cited comparable property's OWN planning history (not just its appearance) genuinely supports treating it as a precedent

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: a recalculated usable-amenity-space figure that excludes hardstanding, driveways and refuse areas per the SPD definition

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: the specific percentage increase over original volume for a Green Belt/MOL extension against the ~25-28% disproportionality threshold

Assigned Zakera Matin 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

That dwelling was granted permission under 14/07456/FUL for Change of use of office to 1no. self-contained residential unit

20/0037/FUL

any extension consisting of 25% to 28% increase over and above the original volume is considered not to have adverse impact on the openness of green Belt

20/0179/HSE

Measured from 174 published Barnet 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 174 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

CS1 arnet’s place shaping strategy – protection,
129 times cited
CS NPPF
127 times cited
DM01Protecting Barnet’s character and amenity Page
125 times cited
CS5 rotecting and enhancing Barnet’s character
119 times cited
DM02Development standards Page
101 times cited
DM17Travel Impact and Parking Standards
64 times cited
DM04Environmental Considerations for
45 times cited
CS9Enlargement of School Facilities CS10 DM
32 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
21/1726/FUL
Full Application
No determination
2026-06-11
25/3876/FUL
Full Application
2026-06-09
21/1726/FUL
Full Application
No determination
2026-06-11
25/3876/FUL
Full Application
2026-06-09
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 524 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. henry planning ltd
2. Great Plans
3. Alan Cox Associates
4. Stuart Henley & Partners
At a glance
OfficerZakera Matin
BoroughBarnet
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications524 (2020–26)
Approval rate59%
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 Barnet 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 Barnet 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 174 published Barnet 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.