Development Intent
AtlasKingston Upon ThamesOfficersAndrew Forrest
Case officer · Kingston Upon Thames Planning

Andrew Forrest.

Recently active — last recorded decision Jan 2025

A case officer at Kingston Upon Thames with an approval rate of 70% across 641 decided planning applications, spanning 36 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer641 decisions70% 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 →
641
Applications
2020–25
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%78%202071%202168%202272%202360%202486%2025
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate70% · 20th 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 reports124 officer reports parsed
0%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
0%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
5%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
69%
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.

Bulk & massing
1.69× borough avg
Character & heritage
1.27× borough avg
Transport & parking
1.24× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
0.9× borough avg
Materials & detailing
0.84× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Forrest is Kingston's telecommunications (TEL) prior-approval specialist and is distinctive for a near-identical refusal formula on rooftop/streetworks mast applications -- describing the apparatus as resulting in 'an incongruous addition ... that would be visually intrusive and create visual clutter and detract from the character and appearance' of the area -- applied consistently regardless of the specific technology or site, and for quantifying a new mast's height against named local street-furniture comparators (telegraph poles, street lamp columns) to justify visual harm. On his non-telecoms caseload he applies the same 'proportionate and subordinate' extension formula and named-policy citation style used borough-wide, but with markedly less narrative elaboration than colleagues with larger HOU/FUL caseloads.

Observable habits

· applies a near-identical 'incongruous addition ... visually intrusive and create visual clutter' refusal formula to rooftop/streetworks telecoms mast applications, largely independent of the specific technology proposed

· quantifies a proposed mast's height against named local street-furniture comparators (telegraph poles at ~8m, street lamp columns at ~10m) to justify a finding of visual harm

· on non-telecoms extensions, applies the borough-wide 'proportionate and subordinate addition' formula with comparatively brief case-specific elaboration

What their reports consistently look for

· whether a proposed telecoms mast's height, when compared to named local street furniture (telegraph poles, lamp columns), would be visually intrusive

· whether telecoms apparatus would be sited in a 'highly visible' rooftop or streetscene location

· whether an extension keeps a 'subordinate and proportionate' relationship to the host dwelling, assessed briefly

Assigned Andrew Forrest 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

It is considered that the proposal would result in an incongruous addition to the host property that would be visually intrusive and create visual clutter

20/00472/TEL

This would be due to the increased height of 2.5m to a total height of 15m which is in excess of 5 to 7m higher than a standard telegraph pole (8m) and street lamp column (10m)

20/00519/TEL

Measured from 124 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 124 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

DM10Design Requirements for New Developments (including House Extensions)134
38 times cited
D3
18 times cited
H2Residential and Other Uses in
17 times cited
CS10Housing Delivery
16 times cited
H1Maintain and enhance retail, district, and local centres' facilities and services
16 times cited
D6
14 times cited
DM13Housing Quality and Mix
12 times cited
D12
12 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward
Ward
Decisions
Approval rate

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
24/02005/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2025-03-21
24/02358/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2025-03-21
24/02005/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2025-03-21
24/02358/FUL
Full Application
Approved
2025-03-21
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 641 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. RAA PLANNING
2. Planning Additions
3. Fluent ADS Ltd
4. . ET Planning
At a glance
OfficerAndrew Forrest
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications641 (2020–25)
Approval rate70%
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 124 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.