Development Intent
Case officer · Richmond Upon Thames Planning

Kreena Patel.

Recently active — last recorded decision Oct 2025

A case officer at Richmond Upon Thames with an approval rate of 84% across 69 decided planning applications, spanning 17 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer69 decisions84% approvalSave
Richmond 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 →
69
Applications
2020–25
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%69%202084%202193%202275%2023100%2024100%202550%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate84% · 19th of 67
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 reports51 officer reports parsed
14%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
14%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
22%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
75%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Richmond Upon Thames's average officer

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

Energy & sustainability
1.75× borough avg
Transport & parking
1.59× borough avg
Precedent & consistency
1.09× borough avg
Bulk & massing
1.06× borough avg
Character & heritage
1.06× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Patel writes basement and lightwell cases with close attention to physical siting detail (depth of lightwell, presence of boundary walls, front-garden screening) to justify why a feature that might otherwise be prominent is not visible from the street. Her prior-approval (GPDO) reports work mechanically through each lettered/numbered statutory criterion with an explicit 'Complies'/'Does not comply' judgement per limb, and she is willing to find non-compliance is unproven where the applicant has not supplied evidence (e.g. of a building's construction date), placing the onus on the applicant.

Observable habits

· justifies acceptability of basement lightwells/plant by reference to specific concealment features (boundary wall height, garden depth, siting) rather than a general design conclusion

· in GPDO prior-approval reports, states 'Complies' or a specific non-compliance finding against each individual lettered/numbered criterion of the statutory class

· explicitly places the evidential onus on the applicant when information supporting a GPDO criterion (e.g. construction date, engineering works) is missing, and finds non-compliance/refusal on that basis

· cites a specific comparator address and its planning reference (e.g. 'No.150 (ref: 04/2334/HOT)') to justify why a feature would not appear incongruous

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a basement lightwell or plant installation would actually be visible/prominent from the street or from neighbouring properties, given specific site features like boundary walls and garden depth

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: a per-criterion compliance judgement against the specific lettered/numbered GPDO class provisions, not a single overall conclusion

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: documentary or drawn evidence (e.g. section drawings, planning history, aerial imagery) supporting a claimed construction date or engineering scope, placing the burden on the applicant where it is absent

Assigned Kreena Patel 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

given the presence of a boundary wall and the large front garden area, the lightwell would not be readily viewable or prominant from the street

20/2544/HOT

the works would involve raising the parapet on the northern side elevation, which would be perceptible from the street given orientation

20/1849/HOT

Measured from 51 published Richmond 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 51 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

D12Teddington School
16 times cited
D4Teddington Station
12 times cited
LP 1
11 times cited
LP 8
11 times cited
HC1
11 times cited
LP 3
5 times cited
LP 21
3 times cited
G7
3 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
24/1662/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2026-01-22
PA25/1198
Full Application
Refused
2026-01-15
24/1662/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2026-01-22
PA25/1198
Full Application
Refused
2026-01-15
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Mr Michael Beck, Mike Beck Design Ltd
2. Dean Design Architectural Services
3. JSA Architects Ltd Chris Palomba
4. HCUK Group Ltd
At a glance
OfficerKreena Patel
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications69 (2020–25)
Approval rate84%
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 Richmond 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 — Richmond Upon Thames's decision-notice parsing is limited coverage, so no borough or officer figure is shown.
  4. [4]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 51 published Richmond 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.