Development Intent
AtlasNewhamOfficersMarina Lai
Case officer · Newham Planning

Marina Lai.

Active — last recorded decision Apr 2026

A case officer at Newham with an approval rate of 100% across 29 decided planning applications, spanning 9 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer29 decisions100% approvalSave
Newham · 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 →
29
Applications
2020–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%100%2020100%2021100%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 rate100% · 1st of 39
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 reports21 officer reports parsed
10%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
20%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
19%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
91%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Newham's average officer

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

Energy & sustainability
3.29× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
3.17× borough avg
Trees & landscape
2.15× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
1.49× borough avg
Transport & parking
1.22× borough avg

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

Assigned Marina Lai 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

Albert Island forms part of the Royal Docks and Beckton Riverside Opportunity Area as identified in Policy SD1 of the London Plan as an area presenting one of the largest regeneration opportunities in London

20/00051/FUL

officers are satisfied that reasonable endeavours have been undertaken to assist the existing businesses on site to be relocated to more suitable alternative premises, complying Policy J2 of the Local Plan

20/00051/FUL

Measured from 21 published Newham 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 across their decisions — how often each appears, and whether refusals citing it survive appeal.

In development — policy citations are coded from officer reports, and that parsing hasn't run for Newham yet. Nothing is shown until it is real.

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
25/00125/FUL
Full Planning Permission
Approved
2025-11-28
25/00540/FUL
Full Planning Permission
Approved
2025-05-09
25/00125/FUL
Full Planning Permission
Approved
2025-11-28
25/00540/FUL
Full Planning Permission
Approved
2025-05-09
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 29 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Synthesis Architecture
2. Montagu Evans
3. Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design
4. DP9 Limited
At a glance
OfficerMarina Lai
BoroughNewham
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications29 (2020–26)
Approval rate100%
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 Newham 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 Newham 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 21 published Newham 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.