Development Intent
AtlasMertonOfficersMyles Bartoli
Case officer · Merton Planning

Myles Bartoli.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Merton with an approval rate of 88% across 377 decided planning applications, spanning 24 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer377 decisions88% approvalSave
Merton · 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 →
377
Applications
2022–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%92%202286%202379%202494%202593%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate88% · 10th of 17
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 reports172 officer reports parsed
1%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
4%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
14%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
84%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Merton's average officer

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

Privacy & overlooking
2.11× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.53× borough avg
Precedent & consistency
1.53× borough avg
Bulk & massing
1.49× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.06× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Bartoli's caseload is dominated by householder extensions and outbuildings, and his reasoning consistently structures each report around a fixed three-part sequence — 'Principle of development', 'Character and appearance'/'Design', then 'Residential amenity' — with a specific measured garden-footprint-coverage percentage cited for outbuildings before a verdict is reached. His refusals concentrate on cases where a two-storey extension's massing is 'incongruous with the single property domestic scale' of a terrace/block of similar properties, judged by comparing the proposal against the UNIFORM single-storey character of the specific named block rather than the wider street.

Observable habits

· structures every report around the same fixed three-part sequence — Principle of development, then Character/Design, then Residential amenity — in that order, even for short outbuilding applications

· for outbuildings, states the exact garden footprint and the proposal's coverage percentage/area in square metres before judging acceptability, rather than a qualitative 'modest scale' statement alone

· on two-storey extension refusals, compares the proposal specifically against the UNIFORM single-storey character of the SPECIFIC named block of similar properties (not the wider street), citing which other properties in that block do or don't have comparable extensions

What their reports consistently look for

· the exact footprint of a proposed outbuilding as a proportion of the total garden area

· whether other properties in the SAME specific named block already have a comparable extension/addition

· whether a flood zone designation (Flood Zone 2/3) applies and requires specific mitigation conditions

Assigned Myles Bartoli 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 massing and bulk of the two-storey flat roof extension is incongruous with the single property domestic scale of the block of similar properties

22/P1642

The proposal's main footprint is approximately 34.4 m2.…The garden is approximately 244 m2, the proposal is not considered excessive for the site

22/P1735

Measured from 172 published Merton 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 172 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DM D2
86 times cited
DM D3
82 times cited
D1Conservation Areas Designation
80 times cited
D4
79 times cited
CS14Design. Strategic
73 times cited
DM F1
11 times cited
CS16Flood Risk Management. Strategic
10 times cited
DM D4
10 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2022–26.[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
26/HOUSE/0486
Householder
Approved
2026-06-02
26/HOUSE/0543
Householder
Approved
2026-06-01
26/HOUSE/0486
Householder
Approved
2026-06-02
26/HOUSE/0543
Householder
Approved
2026-06-01
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Planning Additions
2. A&S Design
3. Studio Werc Ltd
4. RDK Civil Engineering Limited
At a glance
OfficerMyles Bartoli
BoroughMerton
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications377 (2022–26)
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 Merton planning register and published decision notices, 2022–26. · 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 — Merton'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 172 published Merton 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.