Denuka Gunaratne.
Active — last recorded decision May 2026
A case officer at Sutton with an approval rate of 80% across 1,465 decided planning applications, spanning 26 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.
Topic mentions per 1,000 words of their own report text (boilerplate stripped), indexed against all parsed Sutton reports. Attention, not stance.
Mark = borough average (1×). Bar capped at 2×.
Gunaratne's reports are dominated by short, high-volume approvals of modest garage conversions, side/rear extensions and dormer loft conversions, and her reasoning leans heavily on a direct comparison to a SPECIFIC neighbouring precedent, cited by its own house number and (where relevant) application reference, rather than a general area-character statement — a scheme is acceptable because 'there is a current existing similar depth rear extension at neighbouring No. 57' or because a specific numbered neighbour has already had an identical garage conversion approved. Her refusals are comparatively rare in this sample and concentrate on flood-risk-constrained sites (Environment Agency objection on functional floodplain grounds) and out-of-character retail/infill schemes that depart from the surrounding building form, rather than routine amenity harm on ordinary extensions.
· anchors an acceptability finding to a SPECIFIC numbered neighbouring property with an equivalent existing feature (extension, garage conversion, dormer), named by house number, rather than a general character-of-the-area statement
· for garage conversions, checks whether permitted development rights for that specific use have already been formally removed by an earlier planning condition before assessing the current application on its own terms
· on flood-constrained sites, treats a maintained standing Environment Agency objection as effectively determinative, quoting the EA's own flood-zone/vulnerability-category wording directly into the reasoning rather than paraphrasing it
· a specific comparable feature at a named neighbouring house number, used to justify subordination or separation-distance judgements
· whether permitted development rights for the relevant class of works have already been removed by a condition attached to an earlier planning permission at the same site
· the Environment Agency's and Council Sustainability Officer's own standing position on flood risk for sites within a designated Critical Drainage Area or high-risk flood zone
“There is an existing similar depth rear extension at neighbouring No. 57, and in this context the proposal would not be out of character”
DM2020/00087
“the whole of the site is at 'high risk' of fluvial flooding with a greater than a 3.3% (or 1 in 30 year) annual probability of flooding as shown below (EA Flood Zone 3b: Functional Floodplain)”
DM2020/00285
Measured from 1150 published Sutton 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.
The policies this officer cites most in their own reports — times cited across 1150 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.
Show all 26 rows
Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2020–26.[1] Click the map above to focus this page on a ward, or a row to open the ward.
- [1]Applications decided, approval rate, per-year trend and ward breakdown — London Borough of Sutton planning register and published decision notices, 2020–26. · methodology
- [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]Condition load — mean effective conditions attached to Sutton decision notices (grant/split), parsed from the published notice text; a borough figure, not yet split per case officer.
- [4]"How this officer decides", the policy playbook and all quotes — parsed from 1150 published Sutton 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.