Development Intent
AtlasCroydonOfficersMuhammad Saleem
Case officer · Croydon Planning

Muhammad Saleem.

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

A case officer at Croydon with an approval rate of 69% across 44 decided planning applications, spanning 14 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer44 decisions69% approvalSave
Croydon · 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 →
44
Applications
2020–21
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%68%2021100%2022
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate69% · 43rd of 83
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 reports41 officer reports parsed
4%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
0%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
5%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
98%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Croydon's average officer

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

Daylight & sunlight
2.5× borough avg
Trees & landscape
2.33× borough avg
Bulk & massing
2.11× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.11× borough avg
Materials & detailing
0.82× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Saleem's reports are precise about tracking a site's OWN planning history as the primary reference point for assessing a new phase of the same development (parking provision, flood mitigation, drainage conditions already secured under earlier permissions), explicitly noting where a current standalone application should be assessed afresh versus where it can rely on an already-discharged condition from the wider site. He is candid about weighing 'backdrop housing need' as a factor that can outweigh a shortfall against the family-home mix target, rather than treating that target as an absolute threshold.

Observable habits

· tracks a site's own prior planning history (previously approved parking levels, discharged drainage conditions under a named earlier application reference) as the primary comparator for assessing whether a new phase of the same development is acceptable

· explicitly distinguishes matters already resolved by a discharged condition on the wider site from matters that require fresh assessment because the current application changes the use (e.g. commercial to residential)

· weighs 'backdrop housing need'/borough-wide housing pressure explicitly as a factor that can outweigh a shortfall against the family-home mix strategic target, rather than treating the target as an absolute pass/fail threshold

What their reports consistently look for

· the specific prior application reference and discharged-condition number relevant to the current phase of a multi-application site

· whether a use change (e.g. commercial to residential) reopens a matter (flood risk, drainage) that was otherwise already resolved for the wider site

· whether backdrop housing need is explicitly weighed against a housing-mix shortfall rather than treating the mix target as a hard threshold

Assigned Muhammad Saleem 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 relevant condition has been discharged (18/06117/DISC)… the proposal is a shift from commercial to residential which needs new and full consideration

20/04396/FUL

given the district centre siting, time period between the original consent and backdrop need in housing, it is considered that a refusal on this ground would not be sufficient

20/04396/FUL

Measured from 41 published Croydon 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 41 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DM10.6
3 times cited
SP2.1
2 times cited
D5
1 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward
Recent applications
Address
Reference
Type
Outcome
Date
21/02291/FUL
Full planning permission
Approved
2022-05-05
21/02692/FUL
Full planning permission
Refused
2021-11-09
21/02291/FUL
Full planning permission
Approved
2022-05-05
21/02692/FUL
Full planning permission
Refused
2021-11-09
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. HTA Design LLP
2. A0 Design Studio
3. PLANS INK LTD
4. R.B. Designs Ltd
At a glance
OfficerMuhammad Saleem
BoroughCroydon
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications44 (2020–21)
Approval rate69%
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 Croydon 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 Croydon 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 41 published Croydon 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.