Development Intent
AtlasWestminsterOfficersSanchita Raghunathan
Case officer · Westminster Planning

Sanchita Raghunathan.

Active — last recorded decision May 2026

A case officer at Westminster with an approval rate of 92% across 128 decided planning applications, spanning 11 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer128 decisions92% approvalSave
Westminster · 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 →
128
Applications
2024–26
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%100%202492%202583%2026
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate92% · 32nd of 76
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 reports70 officer reports parsed
3%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
8%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
6%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
95%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
What they write about — vs Westminster's average officer

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

Character & heritage
2.17× borough avg
Materials & detailing
1.44× borough avg
Energy & sustainability
1.18× borough avg
Daylight & sunlight
0.55× borough avg

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

How they reason — coded from their reports

Raghunathan credits negotiated amendments that RETAIN specific historic elements (a set of historic cupboards) as making an application acceptable, and consistently checks whether a proposed intervention lands on already-modernised fabric (a boxed-in chimney breast, non-original cornicing) before ruling out harm. On S.73/condition-discharge applications she refuses outright where submitted drawings simply fail to show the SPECIFIC detail a condition required (e.g. omitting floor levelling/joist notching), rather than treating close-but-incomplete compliance as sufficient.

Observable habits

· credits a negotiated amendment that specifically RETAINS a historic element (cupboards, proportions) as the factor making an otherwise-borderline application acceptable

· checks whether the specific fabric an intervention lands on (a chimney breast, cornicing) is already modernised/compromised before ruling out harm, rather than assuming any intervention near historic fabric is harmful

· refuses a condition-discharge application where the submitted drawings simply do not show the SPECIFIC detail the condition required, rather than treating near-compliance as sufficient

What their reports consistently look for

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether a negotiated amendment specifically retains a historic element, making an otherwise-borderline scheme acceptable

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether the specific fabric an intervention lands on is already modernised/compromised, rather than assuming proximity to a listed building means harm

· what this officer's reports consistently look for: whether submitted drawings actually show the SPECIFIC detail a discharge condition required, not just something close to it

Assigned Sanchita Raghunathan 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 proposals were amended during the course of the application and now retain the historic cupboards at the rear bedroom as well as other revisions which make the application acceptable in principle

24/00731/LBC

The proposed drawings in regard to Condition 5 do not show the required details and would result in harm to the special interest of the listed building, contrary to the requirements of the condition

24/02864/ADLBC

Measured from 70 published Westminster 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 70 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

S33
1 times cited
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Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2024–26.[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
26/00240/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2026-05-28
26/00239/FULL
Full Planning Permission Application
Approved
2026-05-28
26/00240/LBC
Listed Building Consent Application
Approved
2026-05-28
26/00239/FULL
Full Planning Permission Application
Approved
2026-05-28
Full application history locked
Subscribe to see all 128 decisions →
Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Peek Architecture Ltd
2. Gerald Eve
3. Cockrell Design
4. Belsize Architects
At a glance
OfficerSanchita Raghunathan
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications128 (2024–26)
Approval rate92%
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 Westminster planning register and published decision notices, 2024–26. · 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 Westminster 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 70 published Westminster 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.