Development Intent
AtlasBrentOfficersColin Leadbeatter
Case officer · Brent Planning

Colin Leadbeatter.

Recently active — last recorded decision Feb 2025

A case officer at Brent with an approval rate of 88% across 8 decided planning applications, spanning 4 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer8 decisions88% approvalSave
Brent · 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 →
8
Applications
2020–25
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%67%2022100%2023100%2024100%2025
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate88% · 6th of 43
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 reports63 officer reports parsed
30%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
14%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
19%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
77%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Brent's average officer

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

Energy & sustainability
4.8× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
1.75× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
1.43× borough avg
Materials & detailing
1.09× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.08× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Leadbeatter's reports on major/extant-consent applications carefully catalogue the specific differences between a resubmission and its extant consent (bullet-pointed), giving that extant consent great material weight, and his Article 4 Direction reports for front garden parking flag the specific policy sections of the Crossover Policy breached by number.

Observable habits

· bullets the specific differences between a resubmission and its extant consent before assessing them individually

· treats an extant consent as a material consideration of "great weight" once established, rather than starting the assessment afresh

· cites specific numbered sections of the Crossover Policy (e.g. section 10, section 22) breached by a scheme

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: the specific, bulleted differences between a resubmission and its extant consent

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether an extant consent should be given great material weight before reassessing a scheme from scratch

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: the specific numbered Crossover Policy sections breached by a front-garden parking scheme

Assigned Colin Leadbeatter 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 changes do not materially alter the nature of the works compared to the extant consent, other than as specifically indicated below. The extant consent is consequently a material planning consideration of great weight in the determination of this application.

21/2714

The proposed crossover onto Kingsbury Road exceeds the maximum width of 4.2m as set out in section 10 of the Crossover Policy

25/0114

Measured from 63 published Brent 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 63 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DMP1DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT GENERAL
36 times cited
BD1Leading the Way in Good Urban Design
33 times cited
D12a
29 times cited
BSUI4ON-SITE WATER MANAGEMENT AND
18 times cited
BGI1GREEN AND BLUE INFRASTRUCTURE IN BRENT
12 times cited
BHC1BRENT’S HERITAGE ASSETS
6 times cited
BT2PARKING AND CAR FREE DEVELOPMENT WHICH ARE
6 times cited
HC1Heritage conservation and growth
4 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward
Ward
Decisions
Approval rate
2
100%
Show all 4 rows

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–25.[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
20/0700
Outline Planning Permission
Approved
2025-10-16
25/0408
Householder
Approved
2025-04-14
20/0700
Outline Planning Permission
Approved
2025-10-16
25/0408
Householder
Approved
2025-04-14
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Sphere 25
2. Sphere25
3. KDA Designs LTD
4. Mistry Design
At a glance
OfficerColin Leadbeatter
BoroughBrent
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications8 (2020–25)
Approval rate88%
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 Brent planning register and published decision notices, 2020–25. · 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 — Brent's decision-notice parsing is limited coverage, so no borough or officer figure is shown.
  4. [4]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 63 published Brent 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.