News and Resources

The exercise of the Secretary of State’s power to call in applications and recover appeals for his own determination is inherently politically charged. This blog post focuses on two recent recovered appeals. The other reverse lottery, of call in, is for another day. The Secretary of State’s policy as to recovering appeals is handily summarised …

“Out of the blue and into the black You pay for this, but they give you that And once you’re gone, you can’t come back When you’re out of the blue and into the black.” (Neil Young) Two double act dates for the diary: 12 July (Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Hyde Park) 1 September …

An interesting example last week of the legal pitfalls should planning permission be granted on the basis of inadequate environmental impact assessment. Interesting partly because although the messages read straight across to all EIA development, including the glitziest of urban development projects, the specific question arose in a very different context: Did a local planning …

The Planning Inspectorate has certainly been moving at pace to improve its inquiry appeal processes following Bridget Rosewell’s independent review of planning appeal inquiries, which I covered in detail in my 15 March 2019 blog post Accelerated Planning. The move to a system of imposing inquiry dates has predictably created the greatest fuss, although is …

“To live outside the law, you must be honest” (Bob Dylan) This blog post covers: ⁃ the principles to be applied in relation to bringing a late claim for judicial review ⁃ the Environmental Audit Committee’s scrutiny of the enforcement and JR aspects of the draft Environment (Principles and Governance) Bill ⁃ The Supreme Court’s …

Two years after my 6 May 2017 blog post Slow Train Coming: Strategic Rail Freight Interchanges In The South East, progress remains slow. I referred in my blog post to the ongoing saga of the Howbury Park (now known as Slade Green), strategic rail freight interchange scheme promoted initially by Prologis (who obtained a, now time …

In my 15 October 2016 blog post Airports & Courts I made the obvious prediction that publication by the Secretary of State for Transport of the Airports National Policy Statement (“ANPS”) would inevitably lead to litigation. The ANPS is important because under the Planning Act 2008 it sets the policy basis for a third runway …

If you are in a position where you may be criminally liable for breach of planning control (whether justified or not – I’ve heard all the stories), you really need to be aware of the implications of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and its potential influence on the approach taken by local planning authority …

Even when it’s your day job in our planning world of imprecisely worded policies and the uncertainties of local and national politics, it can be hard enough to answer the question as to whether a proposed development project has a reasonable prospect of planning permission. But what if you are a county court judge? And …

“We class schools, you see, into four grades: Leading School, First-rate School, Good School, and School. Frankly,” said Mr Levy, “School is pretty bad…” (Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall) The government has been fine-tuning its guidance as to the extent to which developers in England should be required to fund education provision. Serendipitously for this …