Development Intent
AtlasIslingtonOfficersSamir Benmbarek
Case officer · Islington Planning

Samir Benmbarek.

Last recorded decision Apr 2023 — no decisions in this record since

A case officer at Islington with an approval rate of 74% across 346 decided planning applications, spanning 17 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer346 decisions74% approvalSave
Islington · 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 →
346
Applications
2020–23
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%71%202080%202172%202277%2023
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate74% · 49th of 55
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 reports156 officer reports parsed
10%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
5%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
26%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
73%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Islington's average officer

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

Precedent & consistency
1.65× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.57× borough avg
Bulk & massing
1.27× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
1.22× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
1.11× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Benmbarek's reports retain numbered paragraph markers from the source documents and split neighbour amenity into separate Daylight/Sunlight, Outlook, and Privacy sub-headings rather than one combined section. He will state plainly that an element is undesirable in design terms yet accept it 'on balance' or 'in this instance', citing prior permissions on the same site or site constraints as the reason refusal is not warranted.

Observable habits

· splits neighbour amenity into separate Daylight/Sunlight, Outlook and Privacy sub-headings

· states that an element is undesirable or falls short of a standard but accepts it 'in this instance', giving a site-specific reason (prior permission, site constraints)

· references an expired or lapsed prior permission on the same site as contextual support for the current principle of development

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: daylight/sunlight, outlook, and privacy addressed as distinct labelled sub-sections rather than combined

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: a site-specific justification (constraints, prior permission) when a policy standard such as outdoor amenity or cycle parking cannot be met

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether an expired or lapsed permission on the same site supports the current principle of development

Assigned Samir Benmbarek 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

The principle of developing the majority of the rear garden is undesirable in design terms; however, this would not warrant a reason for refusal in this instance.

P2020/0676/FUL

Given the consideration that there is an expired permission for a roof extension of a comparable scale at the application site

P2020/0264/FUL

Measured from 156 published Islington 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 156 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

PLAN1Site appraisal, design principles and process
36 times cited
CS8
17 times cited
D4Designing in Context
17 times cited
DH1Fostering innovation and conserving
16 times cited
DM2.1
15 times cited
CS9
12 times cited
DM2.3
10 times cited
D1
9 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–23.[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
P2023/0980/FUL
Full Planning Application
Approved
2023-06-21
P2023/1034/LBC
Listed Building
Approved
2023-06-21
P2023/0980/FUL
Full Planning Application
Approved
2023-06-21
P2023/1034/LBC
Listed Building
Approved
2023-06-21
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 346 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Cooke Fawcett Ltd
2. Planning & Party Wall Specialists Ltd - Mr Mike Harry
3. Boyer Planning, Mr D. Taylor
4. Metropolis Planning & Design
At a glance
OfficerSamir Benmbarek
BoroughIslington
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications346 (2020–23)
Approval rate74%
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 Islington planning register and published decision notices, 2020–23. · 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 Islington 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 156 published Islington 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.