Development Intent
AtlasWaltham ForestOfficersKurt Henry1
Case officer · Waltham Forest Planning

Kurt Henry1.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Waltham Forest with an approval rate of 72% across 410 decided planning applications, spanning 20 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer410 decisions72% approvalSave
Waltham Forest · 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 →
410
Applications
2021–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%83%202181%202278%202356%202466%202570%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate72% · 27th of 49
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 reports84 officer reports parsed
2%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
0%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
6%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
72%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Waltham Forest's average officer

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

Transport & parking
1.54× borough avg
Energy & sustainability
1.12× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.09× borough avg
Materials & detailing
1.06× borough avg
Flooding & drainage
0.99× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Henry's larger mixed-use/multi-flat applications are distinctive for a pragmatic, context-sensitive application of space and amenity standards rather than mechanical enforcement -- he is willing to accept a small shortfall against the combined kitchen/dining space standard where every individual bedroom exceeds its own minimum, or to accept limited external amenity space in a town-centre location where nearby green space is within walking distance, explicitly weighing the whole package rather than failing a scheme on one shortfall alone. Where drawings are internally inconsistent (a balustrade shown on one elevation but not another), he states plainly that officers cannot reach a firm privacy/overlooking conclusion rather than guessing in the applicant's favour, and on refusals he identifies the single decisive test that was not met (a cramped living environment from inadequate GIA) as the operative reason.

Observable habits

· weighs a package of space-standard results together (accepting one shortfall where other elements exceed minimums) rather than failing a scheme on a single shortfall in isolation

· where submitted drawings are internally inconsistent across elevations/plans, states explicitly that officers cannot reach a firm assessment rather than resolving the ambiguity in the applicant's favour

· on refusals, isolates the single decisive failed test (e.g. inadequate GIA producing a cramped living environment) as the operative reason for refusal

What their reports consistently look for

· whether a shortfall against one space-standard metric is offset by the rest of the unit's layout exceeding requirements, assessed as a whole package rather than metric-by-metric pass/fail

· whether the submitted elevations and plans are internally consistent enough to support a firm privacy/overlooking conclusion for neighbouring properties

· which single test, if any, was decisively not met, to be named as the operative reason for refusal rather than a general dissatisfaction with the scheme

Assigned Kurt Henry1 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

There is however a shortfall of 5sq.m with regard to the combined kitchen/ dining space, but, as all of the bedrooms exceed minimum space standards officers consider this shortfall acceptable in this instance

240809

officers are unable to assess if the privacy implications to the existing dwellings at 3 Bromley Road are unreasonable to justify a reason for refusal due to inconsistent plans

240688

The proposed development would create a cramped living environment where apart from the kitchen there is no form of living space

242051

Measured from 84 published Waltham Forest 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 84 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

57Amenity
39 times cited
53Delivering High Quality Design
38 times cited
79Biodiversity and Geodiversity
36 times cited
91Managing Flood Risk
6 times cited
56Residential Space Standards
5 times cited
D6
4 times cited
DM29
3 times cited
H10
3 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2021–26.[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
261317
Householder Planning
2026-05-29
260763
Householder Planning
Refused
2026-05-26
261317
Householder Planning
2026-05-29
260763
Householder Planning
Refused
2026-05-26
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 410 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Civils Consulting Ltd
2. Resi
3. LONDON CONSULTANTS LTD
4. allPlanning
At a glance
OfficerKurt Henry1
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications410 (2021–26)
Approval rate72%
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 Waltham Forest planning register and published decision notices, 2021–26. · 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 Waltham Forest 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 84 published Waltham Forest 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.