Development Intent
AtlasRichmond Upon ThamesOfficersJames Phillips
Case officer · Richmond Upon Thames Planning

James Phillips.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Richmond Upon Thames with an approval rate of 76% across 273 decided planning applications, spanning 13 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer273 decisions76% 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 →
273
Applications
2022–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%100%202278%202366%202478%202589%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate76% · 54th 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 reports301 officer reports parsed
2%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
8%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
24%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
65%
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.

Precedent & consistency
1.43× borough avg
Noise & disturbance
1.33× borough avg
Transport & parking
1.31× borough avg
Outlook & amenity
1.18× borough avg
Energy & sustainability
1.17× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Phillips gives precise dormer/extension dimensions (height, width, depth in metres) measured against the specific roof slope or elevation they sit on, and repeatedly weighs whether a feature would 'dominate' relative to the host house or would help 'reunify' or match an adjoining semi-detached pair, drawing on conservation area appraisal wording for the specific named conservation area.

Observable habits

· gives the precise dimensions of a dormer or extension (height/width/depth) and the dimensions of the roof slope or wall it sits within, before judging dominance

· quotes directly from a named conservation area appraisal or statement (e.g. King Edward's Grove Conservation Area Statement) to frame 'problems and pressures' relevant to the specific proposal

· considers whether an asymmetrical alteration would help 'reunify' a semi-detached pair of houses or would instead disrupt existing pair symmetry

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: exact dormer/extension dimensions set against the specific roof slope or wall dimensions it occupies

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: named conservation area appraisal/statement wording identifying specific 'problems and pressures' relevant to the proposal

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether an alteration would disrupt or help reunify the symmetry of a semi-detached or paired building

Assigned James Phillips 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

While the dormers on both houses would not be identical, the overall massing would be similar and to some extent would help reunify the pair of houses.

22/3124/HOT

The King Edward's Grove Conservation Area (KEGCA) Appraisal, on the subject of dormers, says that 'historic detailing of houses in the area is largely intact, and although there are dormer window extensions which are visible from a public domain, these are currently on a minority of properties and not disproportionate in size to the roof planes'.

22/3124/HOT

Measured from 301 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 301 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

D4Teddington Station
195 times cited
D12Teddington School
180 times cited
HC1
93 times cited
D11
77 times cited
SI13
32 times cited
D14
17 times cited
SI12
11 times cited
D5Queens Road Clinic
10 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2022–26.[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
PA26/1729
Householder Application
2026-05-15
PA26/1729
Householder Application
2026-05-15
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 273 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Natalie Gaunt, Cardtronics Service Solutions
2. Network Rail Infrastructure Limited
3. Grainne O'Keeffe Architects Ltd
4. Mr ASB Property Consultants Limited AS A
At a glance
OfficerJames Phillips
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications273 (2022–26)
Approval rate76%
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, 2022–26. · 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 — 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 301 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.