Caroline Daly

• Planning
• Compulsory Purchase and Compensation
• Infrastructure
• Rating and Valuation
• Environment
• Assets of Community Value
• Housing
• Information Requests

Planning

Caroline has a wide-ranging planning practice and her clients include developers, local authorities and interested parties. She is regularly instructed to advise on, and appear in, planning appeals, judicial reviews and statutory challenges, both as sole counsel and as a junior.

Recent work includes:

• Acting for a waste authority in a 3 day inquiry regarding a green waste composting facility in the Green Belt.
• Acting for the successful local authority in a 4 day s. 106B inquiry concerning an application by a private school to modify a maximum limit on its pupil numbers under an s.106 agreement.
• Acting (as junior to Gregory Jones QC) in Skipton Properties Ltd v Craven District Council [2017] EWHC 534 (Admin), a successful judicial review of Craven DC’s adoption of affordable housing guidance on the basis that the guidance was a development plan document under the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012, and ought to have been adopted as such. The case also raised SEA issues.
• Acting as junior to Douglas Edwards QC in the Court of Appeal (Turner v SSCLG [2015] EWCA Civ 582) in which she and Douglas Edwards QC successfully argued that there was no apparent bias on the part of the inspector at the planning inquiry in relation to the redevelopment of the Shell Centre on the Southbank.

Local Plans: Caroline advises on matters relating to local plans. She is well versed in all local plan related issues, including the duty to co-operate, OAN and housing requirements, SEA and Habitats Regulation matters, transport and infrastructure issues, and gypsy and traveller accommodation assessments. She is presently acting for a number of local authorities at various stages in the plan-making process. Specific examples of her involvement include acting for North Hertfordshire District Council at their Examination and advising on the emerging West of England Joint Spatial Plan (in both cases as junior to Suzanne Ornsby QC). She also acts for objectors and is currently instructed by a community group in Hampshire in respect of an emerging plan.

Enforcement, Certificates of Lawful Development and Injunctions: Caroline frequently acts in enforcement and lawful development certificate inquiries and hearings. Examples of her work include appearing for a London borough in an inquiry concerning a large Green Belt site with a number of static homes/cabins in residential use and acting in a LDC inquiry in respect of the alleged change of use of a small HMO to separate self-contained flats. She also provides written advice on matters such as the identification of the planning unit and the content of enforcement notices. In the criminal courts, Caroline has advised and represented clients in relation to prosecutions for failure to comply with enforcement notices, including where applications are made under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

She has appeared before the High Court in successful applications for injunctions against gypsies and travellers under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act.

Heritage Assets: Caroline has a good understanding of the law relating to heritage assets. She has acted in housing inquiries in which heritage issues have arisen, and is currently acting (as junior to Morag Ellis QC) in an ecclesiastical law case in the Court of Arches relating to the construction of a nursery school in the immediate setting of the Hawksmoor-designed Christ Church, Spitalfields.

Planning Conditions, Planning Obligations and CIL: Caroline advises on the adequacy of planning conditions and planning obligations and is experienced in dealing with Regulation 122 compliance issues. She also advises on the steps required to discharge planning conditions. Caroline has advised on the lawfulness of car free clauses in s. 106 agreements in respect of residential development in London boroughs and further afield.

Control of Advertisements: Caroline has experience of the advertising consent regime and has assisted landowners seeking to appeal against removal notices issued by local authorities.

Caroline is seconded to the planning department at the London Borough of Bexley on an ad hoc basis, where she provides advice on a variety of planning matters and acts as the legal adviser to the planning committee.

Compulsory Purchase and Compensation

Caroline has a strong interest in compulsory purchase matters and is a member of the Compulsory Purchase Association Future Committee. She is an editor of the Compulsory Purchase and Compensation Service.

In relation to compulsory purchase orders, Caroline has a particular interest in estate regeneration schemes and was instructed by Southwark Council (as junior to Melissa Murphy) on the second Aylesbury Estate CPO inquiry.

Caroline is also regularly instructed in disputes regarding compulsory purchase compensation. Recent clients include Network Rail and Swale Borough Council.

Infrastructure

Caroline has a keen interest in infrastructure and has worked on a range of infrastructure matters. She has assisted with advising on a DCO for an electrical system, and with the successful resistance of a s. 288 challenge to the grant of planning permission for the erection of a series of wind turbines with a generating capacity of 49MW in Wales.

Rating and Valuation

Caroline regularly advises ratepayers and local authorities on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious rating matters. She has appeared on many occasions in the Magistrates' Court on rating matters and has advised in relation to issues including the backdating of liability, empty rates relief (specifically Makro schemes), charitable relief, and the setting aside of liability orders.

Caroline was instructed (as junior to Richard Glover QC) on Mainline Pipeline v Colston, a case in the Upper Tribunal regarding the valuation of an oil pipeline.

Environment

Caroline has experience of a variety of issues relating to environmental law. Recent and ongoing work includes:

• Acting in a planning hearing regarding a Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG);
• Assisting with drafting grounds for judicial review on behalf of Friends of the Earth (Northern Ireland) in relation to unlawful sand and gravel extraction at Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles. This case involved issues relating to the EIA Directive, Habitats Directive, and obligations under the RAMSAR convention;
• Assisting with drafting an advice on liability for remediation of contaminated land under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990;
• Assisting with drafting an opinion on the renewal of old mineral permissions and compliance with the EIA Directive.

Assets of Community Value

Caroline regularly advises on the law relating to assets of community value.

She acted (as junior to Douglas Edwards QC) in the Court of Appeal in Banner Homes v St Albans City and DC [2018] EWCA Civ 1187, which was a challenge to the registration of an open area of land on the basis that the community use made of the land was trespassory use. Banner Homes was the first case concerning assets of community value to go to the Court of Appeal.

Caroline also recently represented the City of London in the First-tier Tribunal in resisting a challenge to the first asset of community value registered in the City, the Still and Star public house in Aldgate (4C Hotels v City of London CR/2017/0011).

Caroline has also acted in planning appeals concerning land and buildings registered as assets of community value.

Housing

Caroline advises on matters relating to the Housing Act 2004. Recent examples relate to:

• The continuation of a local authority's additional licensing scheme for HMOs;
• An appeal against an improvement notice issued as an enforcement measure under Part 1 of the Act;
• The imposition of conditions on a licence subject to a selective licensing regime;
• HMO Prosecutions.

Information Requests

Caroline has advised on requests made under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations in a variety of fields, including in relation to requests for the disclosure