Development Intent
Case officer · Kingston Upon Thames Planning

Lucy Bennett.

Active — last recorded decision Nov 2025

A case officer at Kingston Upon Thames with an approval rate of 59% across 117 decided planning applications, spanning 18 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer117 decisions59% 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 →
117
Applications
2021–25
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%52%202461%2025100%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate59% · 31st 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 reports26 officer reports parsed
25%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
50%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
12%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
87%
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
1.84× borough avg
Precedent & consistency
1.61× borough avg
Trees & landscape
1.13× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
1.06× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
0.98× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Bennett handles Kingston's largest civic-scale schemes (a new leisure centre adjacent to a Grade II listed library, in this coded sample) and is distinctive for engaging with specialist technical assessments beyond the routine planning toolkit -- a Wind Microclimate Report using CFD modelling, detailed cycle-parking stakeholder consultation responses from a named cycling campaign group -- rather than relying on general policy compliance statements, and for an asset-by-asset heritage impact assessment naming each individually affected heritage asset (the listed library, an unlisted stone pier, the conservation area) with a separate significance conclusion for each.

Observable habits

· engages directly with specialist technical assessments (Wind Microclimate CFD modelling reports) beyond the routine planning toolkit, summarising their specific findings rather than a general compliance statement

· incorporates detailed, quoted consultation responses from named stakeholder groups (e.g. a cycling campaign) into the assessment rather than a generic 'no objection' summary

· runs an asset-by-asset heritage impact assessment, naming each individually affected heritage asset separately with its own significance conclusion rather than one combined heritage finding

What their reports consistently look for

· the specific findings of specialist technical reports (e.g. wind microclimate CFD modelling) rather than a general policy-compliance statement

· detailed, named stakeholder consultation feedback (e.g. cycling campaign groups) engaged with directly rather than summarised generically

· a separate, individually-reasoned significance and impact conclusion for each heritage asset potentially affected by a major scheme

Assigned Lucy Bennett 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 study has employed modelling (CFD) to predict the strength of wind speeds that would occur following the introduction of the proposed development

24/00805/FUL

We note the improvements made to the cycle parking compared to the previous application

24/00805/FUL

Measured from 26 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 26 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DM10Design Requirements for New Developments (including House Extensions)134
7 times cited
DM9Managing Vehicle Use for New Development
5 times cited
D3
2 times cited
D6
1 times cited
D13
1 times cited
D14
1 times cited
SD7
1 times cited
CS12Retail and Town Centres
1 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2021–25.[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
25/02199/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2026-01-21
25/02721/FUL
Full Application
Refused
2025-12-18
25/02199/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2026-01-21
25/02721/FUL
Full Application
Refused
2025-12-18
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. ET Planning
2. Jones Lang LaSalle Limited
3. Pegasus Group
4. Boyer Planning
At a glance
OfficerLucy Bennett
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications117 (2021–25)
Approval rate59%
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, 2021–25. · 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 26 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.