Development Intent
Case officer · Hammersmith And Fulham Planning

Zhirong Li.

Active — last recorded decision Nov 2025

A case officer at Hammersmith And Fulham with an approval rate of 93% across 666 decided planning applications, spanning 14 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer666 decisions93% approvalSave
Hammersmith And Fulham · 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 →
666
Applications
2020–25
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%100%202089%202193%202292%202390%202497%2025100%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate93% · 22nd of 45
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 reports287 officer reports parsed
6%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
4%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
3%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
92%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Hammersmith And Fulham's average officer

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

Trees & landscape
2.03× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.39× borough avg
Character & heritage
1.29× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.1× borough avg
Privacy & overlooking
0.98× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Li's caseload spans conservation-area extensions and flood-zone development, and his reports are the most systematically formulaic of the coded officers, running a numbered (i)/(ii)/(iii) compliance checklist against the borough's Housing Standards Key Principles for almost every application, explicitly marking each criterion as 'Complies'/'Not applicable'/'does not comply' before any narrative discussion. Where a scheme does not comply with a numeric guideline (depth, boundary setback), he is comfortable recommending approval anyway by comparing the proposal directly against an existing extension at the specific most-affected neighbouring property, arguing the departure is mitigated because it does not exceed what already exists next door. He treats flood risk assessments in Flood Zone 3 as a routine sign-off once the Environmental Policy Team has raised no objection, rarely elaborating beyond a one-line confirmation.

Observable habits

· runs an explicit numbered (i)/(ii)/(iii) 'Complies'/'Not applicable'/'does not comply' checklist against the Housing Standards Key Principles criteria before any narrative discussion, for nearly every report

· where a numeric guideline is breached, justifies approval by direct comparison against an existing extension at the SPECIFIC most-affected neighbouring property, showing the proposal does not exceed what already exists there

· treats Environmental Policy Team sign-off on a Flood Risk Assessment as sufficient without further elaboration, even in Flood Risk Zone 3

What their reports consistently look for

· whether each Housing Standards Key Principle criterion individually complies, is not applicable, or does not comply, stated explicitly rather than implied

· whether a proposal that breaches a numeric depth or boundary guideline is still no worse than an existing comparable extension at the specific neighbouring property most affected

· whether the Environmental Policy Team has raised any objection to the submitted Flood Risk Assessment

Assigned Zhirong Li 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 proposed rear extension at the application site would set below the No.11's rear extension and it would not project any further than that extension

2020/03221/FUL

any harmful impact on no.11's amenities would be mitigated against

2020/02972/FUL

Measured from 287 published Hammersmith And Fulham 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 287 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DC1Built environment quality and integration
259 times cited
DC4High standard of design for alterations and extensions
243 times cited
HO11Detailed Residential Standards
243 times cited
DC8Heritage and conservation: Buildings at risk
181 times cited
CC11Noise and Vibration Control for Developments
147 times cited
DC6Respecting architectural character with replacement windows
103 times cited
CC3Flood Risk Assessment Requirement
101 times cited
CC4Minimising surface water run-off with Sustainable Drainage Systems
72 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–25.[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
2025/01687/FUL
Full Planning Application
Approved
2026-04-15
2025/01781/FUL
Full Planning Application
Approved
2026-02-02
2025/01687/FUL
Full Planning Application
Approved
2026-04-15
2025/01781/FUL
Full Planning Application
Approved
2026-02-02
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 666 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Mr Joe Marshall / Silver Teal Ltd
2. Mr - Stern / SAM Planning services
3. Mr Paul Whalley / Faithorn Farrell Timms LLP
4. Mr Tony Mclaren / Mclaren Architecture Ltd
At a glance
OfficerZhirong Li
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications666 (2020–25)
Approval rate93%
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 Hammersmith And Fulham planning register and published decision notices, 2020–25. · 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 Hammersmith And Fulham 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 287 published Hammersmith And Fulham 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.