Development Intent
AtlasKingston Upon ThamesOfficersHarsha Bhundia
Case officer · Kingston Upon Thames Planning

Harsha Bhundia.

Recently active — last recorded decision Jul 2025

A case officer at Kingston Upon Thames with an approval rate of 65% across 157 decided planning applications, spanning 33 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer157 decisions65% approvalSave
Kingston Upon Thames · 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 →
157
Applications
2020–25
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%56%202065%202181%202276%202378%202450%2025
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate65% · 28th of 32
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 reports40 officer reports parsed
14%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
14%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
3%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
90%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Kingston Upon Thames's average officer

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

Energy & sustainability
1.69× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
1.52× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.5× borough avg
Materials & detailing
1.03× borough avg
Trees & landscape
0.9× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Bhundia is distinctive for a rigorous community-facility/night-time-economy protection test on change-of-use applications, applying the NPPF paragraph 92 five-point community-facility framework explicitly and refusing where the applicant fails to demonstrate the facility is no longer needed, has been marketed unsuccessfully, or can be reprovided elsewhere. On section 73 variation applications for larger schemes she works methodically through each individual proposed change against the approved baseline, and gives explicit weight to legal-agreement continuity clauses (whether an existing S106 obligation would automatically extend to a varied permission).

Observable habits

· applies the NPPF paragraph 92 community-facility five-point test explicitly on change-of-use applications, refusing where none of the three statutory justifications (no longer needed / unsuccessfully marketed / reprovided elsewhere) is demonstrated

· on major section 73 variations, itemises each individual proposed change against the approved baseline scheme systematically before reaching an overall design conclusion

· gives explicit weight to whether an existing S106 legal agreement's continuity clause would automatically extend to a varied permission, rather than treating this as a formality

What their reports consistently look for

· whether the applicant has demonstrated one of the three statutory justifications (no longer needed, unsuccessfully marketed, or reprovided elsewhere) for losing a community facility

· each individual proposed change in a section 73 variation, compared systematically against the approved baseline

· whether an existing S106 legal agreement's own continuity clause would automatically bind a varied permission

Assigned Harsha Bhundia 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 applicant has not demonstrated that the facility is no longer required or that it has been vacant and marketed for a community use without success, or it can be re-provided elsewhere or in a different way

20/01185/FUL

This legal agreement precludes future occupants of and visitors to the development from applying for on-street parking permits within the surrounding controlled parking zone

20/01360/FUL

Measured from 40 published Kingston Upon Thames 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 40 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DM10Design Requirements for New Developments (including House Extensions)134
22 times cited
DM6Biodiversity
9 times cited
DM4Water Management and Flood Risk
7 times cited
DM9Managing Vehicle Use for New Development
6 times cited
D6
5 times cited
D3
5 times cited
D12
5 times cited
G6
5 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
25/00524/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2025-10-21
24/02075/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2025-10-07
25/00524/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2025-10-21
24/02075/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2025-10-07
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Vertigo Hunt Design Ltd
2. Reed Watts
3. Drawnhouse Ltd
4. MBOSS Ltd
At a glance
OfficerHarsha Bhundia
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications157 (2020–25)
Approval rate65%
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 Kingston Upon Thames 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 Kingston Upon Thames 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 40 published Kingston Upon Thames 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.