Development Intent
AtlasHackneyOfficersRaymond Okot
Case officer · Hackney Planning

Raymond Okot.

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

A case officer at Hackney with an approval rate of 79% across 390 decided planning applications, spanning 23 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer390 decisions79% 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 →
390
Applications
2020–23
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%79%202074%202184%202283%2023
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate79% · 24th 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 reports296 officer reports parsed
16%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
7%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
3%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
70%
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.

Character & heritage
1.38× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.25× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
1.11× borough avg
Precedent & consistency
1.05× borough avg
Materials & detailing
1.02× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Okot's design conclusions consistently close each policy paragraph with the exact policy numbers complied with, strung together as a single closing sentence ('would comply with LDF core policy 24... DM1... DM2... SPD... policies 7.4... 7.6'), and he cites a specific comparator extension in the immediate terrace by street number to justify scale rather than a general design judgement.

Observable habits

· closes each section with a single sentence stringing together every specific policy number complied with

· cites a specific comparator extension elsewhere in the immediate terrace by street number ('resembles... number 79 Lenthall Road') to justify scale

· assesses a resubmission directly against the specific reasons the earlier scheme was refused, confirming which have been overcome

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: a specific comparator extension elsewhere in the same terrace, named by street number

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a resubmission has specifically overcome the named reasons an earlier scheme on the same site was refused

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: the complete list of specific policy numbers a scheme complies with, stated together at the close of each section

Assigned Raymond Okot 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

As such, the proposal would comply with LDF core policy 24 (Design), Development Management Local Plan policies DM1 (High Quality Design) and DM2 (Development and Amenity), Hackney Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD and policies 7.4 (Local character) and 7.6 (Architecture) of the London Plan 2016.

2020/0195

The proposed development in comparison with the existing situation would appear to be more organised and sympathetic to existing host building. In the context of the existing adjacent and surrounding neighbour extensions with some that appear to be larger than the current development, the proposal is considered not to significantly depart from the design character and appearance of the existing building and other buildings in the terrace. The proposal which resembles the consented ground floor and first floor rear extension at number 79 Lenthall Road in many of its design aspects is considered to relate well with the existing rear streetscene.

2020/0325

Measured from 296 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 296 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
163 times cited
LP2Development and Amenity
158 times cited
D3Allocation: Mixed-use including residential
125 times cited
D1130 Kingsland High Street and site to the rear 130A Kingsland High
111 times cited
LP33Hackney Central and Dalston
106 times cited
LP3Designated Heritage Assets
100 times cited
HC1Allocation: Mixed use
74 times cited
LP55Mitigating Climate Change
67 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
2022/0026
Householder Planning
Withdrawn
2025-05-02
2022/2823
Householder Planning
Withdrawn
2025-05-02
2022/0026
Householder Planning
Withdrawn
2025-05-02
2022/2823
Householder Planning
Withdrawn
2025-05-02
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 390 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Redwoods Projects Ltd
2. SAM Planning Services
3. Stace LLP
4. Potter Raper Ltd
At a glance
OfficerRaymond Okot
BoroughHackney
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications390 (2020–23)
Approval rate79%
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, 2020–23. · 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 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 296 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.