Development Intent
AtlasHackneyOfficersBenjamin Coffie
Case officer · Hackney Planning

Benjamin Coffie.

Last recorded decision May 2021 — no decisions in this record since

A case officer at Hackney with an approval rate of 71% across 69 decided planning applications, spanning 16 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer69 decisions71% approvalSave
Hackney · 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 →
69
Applications
2020–21
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%100%202070%2021
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate71% · 37th of 52
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 reports61 officer reports parsed
17%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
11%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
12%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
74%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Hackney's average officer

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

Bulk & massing
1.74× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
1.72× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.34× borough avg
Character & heritage
1.22× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
0.98× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Coffie's amenity refusals cite the SPECIFIC affected neighbour by address and depth figure driving the objection while noting that a different adjoining neighbour's own existing extension already mitigates any impact there — a differentiated per-neighbour treatment rather than a blanket refusal.

Observable habits

· differentiates between adjoining neighbours, finding one already mitigated by their own extension while another is not, rather than a blanket amenity conclusion

· cites named comparator extensions at specific numbered addresses to argue a proposal's character has 'evolved' with area precedent

· flags where daylight/sunlight assessment specifically fails against ONE named neighbouring property while passing for another

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether each individually adjoining neighbour is differently affected (one already mitigated by their own extension, another not) rather than one blanket amenity verdict

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: named comparator extensions at specific numbered addresses supporting an argument that street character has evolved

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: which SPECIFIC named neighbouring property a daylight/sunlight assessment actually fails against, not a general pass/fail

Assigned Benjamin Coffie 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

it is noted that the adjoining property at No.77 benefits from a rear extension along the boundary with the application dwelling, having an approximate depth of 1.5m.

2020/3118

the proposal fails against the other attached dwelling at No. 73 which does not posses any rear projection which could sheild off any impacts of the proposed rear extension alike no.77.

2020/3118

it is acknowledged that the proposal depicts prevalent precedents within the immediate area and would mirror the dormer and outrigger development at No.40.

2020/3142

there are a number of similar extensions in the immediate vicinity and thus it could be argued that the character has evolved with these types of extensions being commonplace, notably at Nos. 44, 50, 52 and 58

2020/3142

Measured from 61 published Hackney 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 61 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

LP1Part A will be applied having regard to the scale and location of the
36 times cited
LP2Development and Amenity
35 times cited
7.6
17 times cited
7.4
16 times cited
D4Allocation: Mixed-use including residential
15 times cited
LP55Mitigating Climate Change
13 times cited
LP3Designated Heritage Assets
12 times cited
LP33Hackney Central and Dalston
11 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–21.[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
2020/3736
Householder Planning
Withdrawn
2023-12-14
2021/0621
Full Planning Permission
Withdrawn
2023-12-12
2020/3736
Householder Planning
Withdrawn
2023-12-14
2021/0621
Full Planning Permission
Withdrawn
2023-12-12
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 69 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. SAM Planning services
2. Redwoods Projects Ltd
3. Bidwells
4. Paramount Planning Ltd
At a glance
OfficerBenjamin Coffie
BoroughHackney
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications69 (2020–21)
Approval rate71%
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 Hackney planning register and published decision notices, 2020–21. · 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 Hackney 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 61 published Hackney 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.