Development Intent
AtlasSuttonOfficersMorgan Cheung
Case officer · Sutton Planning

Morgan Cheung.

Last recorded decision Feb 2022 — no decisions in this record since

A case officer at Sutton with an approval rate of 33% across 150 decided planning applications, spanning 18 wards.[1] Decision speed and appeal performance publish when decision notices are ingested.

Planning officer150 decisions33% approvalSave
Sutton · 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 →
150
Applications
2021–22
Approval rate over time — tougher or softer 🔒Dashed line = London average
avg 81%29%202137%2022
Approval-rate trend is subscriber dataSubscribe to see the trend →
What they decide — by application type
How they compareVersus peers
Approval rate33% · 18th of 18
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 reports223 officer reports parsed
0%
Approves despite concerns
of approvals record a documented reservation
0%
Negotiated approvals
approvals mentioning revisions/amendments
0%
"On balance" reports
reports using explicit balancing language
46%
Bespoke reasoning
of report text written for the case, not recited
How they reason — coded from their reports

Cheung's reports on routine rear/side extensions and dormers are compact and formulaic, consistently framing acceptability around whether a scheme would 'read as a subordinate addition to the host dwelling' and would be 'in keeping with the built character of the surrounding area' — a phrase repeated near-verbatim across otherwise distinct schemes. Refusals in this sample turn on a specific measured excess (a full-width rear extension exceeding neighbouring precedent in depth or height) rather than a broader design objection, and Cheung is explicit about naming the two flanking properties 'most likely to be affected' before assessing amenity impact, in a similar house-number-first structure to several of her Sutton colleagues.

Observable habits

· uses the recurring formulation 'read as a subordinate addition to the host dwelling' and 'in keeping with the built character of the surrounding area' as the load-bearing test for design acceptability on routine extensions

· names the specific flanking properties 'most likely to be affected by the proposal' by house number before assessing loss of light, outlook or privacy

· on refusals, isolates a single measured dimension (height or depth) that exceeds the immediate comparator rather than raising multiple compounding objections

What their reports consistently look for

· whether a proposed extension would 'read as a subordinate addition' when measured against the host dwelling's own scale

· the specific flanking properties most likely to be affected, named by house number, before the amenity assessment begins

· a directly comparable extension of similar scale already present on the same street, used to justify subordination and character findings

Assigned Morgan Cheung 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 extension is modest in scale and would read as a subordinate addition to the host dwelling and would be in keeping with the built character of the surrounding area

DM2021/02184

9 Meadow Road to the north and 15 Meadow Road to the south of the application site respectively are the property most likely to be affected by the proposal

DM2022/00199

Measured from 223 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.

Policy playbook — what this officer cites[3]

The policies this officer cites most in their own reports — times cited across 223 parsed reports. Whether refusals citing each survive appeal isn't traced per policy yet.

28Character and Design
6 times cited
29Protecting Amenity
5 times cited
D12
4 times cited
Which policies this officer leans on is subscriber intelligenceSubscribe to unlock →
Decisions by ward

Where this officer's caseload concentrates, 2021–22.[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
DM2021/02501
Householder Application
Approved
2022-05-20
DM2022/00334
PA Householder Rear Extension
Not required
2022-04-05
DM2021/02501
Householder Application
Approved
2022-05-20
DM2022/00334
PA Householder Rear Extension
Not required
2022-04-05
Full application history locked
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Consultants approved most— subscriber data
1. Lenio
2. F G STRUCT LTD
3. KKR Planning & Design Ltd
4. Planning Additions
At a glance
OfficerMorgan Cheung
BoroughSutton
RolePlanning officer
Experience
Applications150 (2021–22)
Approval rate33%
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 Sutton planning register and published decision notices, 2021–22. · 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 Sutton 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 223 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.
Methodology is published in full so every number is traceable to its primary source.