Caroline Daly

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

Planning

Caroline has a wide-ranging planning practice and regularly advises on planning matters, appearing for both developers and local authorities in appeals, judicial reviews and statutory challenges.

Recent and ongoing work includes:

• Acting as junior to Gregory Jones QC in Skipton Properties Ltd v Craven District Council [2017] EWHC 534 (Admin), a successful judicial review challenge to 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 Suzanne Ornsby QC on the North Hertfordshire District Council Local Plan Examination.
• 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 regularly advises on local plans and 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 ongoing Examination and advising on the emerging West of England Joint Spatial Strategy (in both cases as junior to Suzanne Ornsby QC).  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, and gypsy and traveller accommodation assessments.

Enforcement and Certificates of Lawful Development: Caroline frequently acts in enforcement and lawful development certificate inquiries and hearings. Examples of her recent work include appearing for the London Borough of Barnet in an inquiry concerning a large Green Belt site with a number of static homes/cabins in residential use, acting in a hearing concerning the question of whether a structure was sufficiently permanent and fixed to the ground to constitute 'development', and acting in a LDC inquiry in respect of the change of use of a small house in multiple occupation to separate self-contained flats.

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 relating to the construction of a nursery school adjacent to the Hawksmoor-designed Christ Church, Spitalfields.

Planning Conditions, Planning Obligations and CIL: Caroline regularly 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. She recently acted in a rare s. 106B inquiry for the London Borough of Harrow, in which she successfully resisted an application by a private school to modify a maximum limit on its pupil numbers under a s.106 agreement.

Injunctions: Caroline acts in injunction applications under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act. She has appeared as sole counsel before the High Court in successful applications for injunctions against gypsies and travellers.

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 on the Young Compulsory Purchase Association Committee.

Caroline is currently acting for Southwark Council (as junior to Melissa Murphy) on the Aylesbury Estate CPO inquiry. The inquiry sat for four weeks in January 2018 and is due to reconvene for a further fortnight in April 2018.

Caroline has also undertaken work on a complex case in the Lands Chamber concerning injurious affection under s.10 of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965.

Infrastructure

Caroline has a keen interest in infrastructure and has worked on a range of infrastructure and energy matters. She has assisted with advising on a development consent order for an electrical system in relation to the adequacy of both the consultation process and the Environmental Statement.

She has also assisted 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 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.

Caroline represents ratepayers in a wide range of contentious and non-contentious rating matters. She regularly appears in the Magistrates' Court on rating matters. She has advised in relation to a number of issues including the backdating of liability, empty rates relief (including Makro schemes) and the setting aside of liability orders.

Environment

Caroline has experience of a variety of issues relating to environmental law.

Recent and ongoing work includes: 

• Acting in a 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.

Village Greens and Assets of Community Value

Caroline is experienced in the law relating to village greens and assets of community value.

She acted (as junior to Douglas Edwards QC) in the Upper Tribunal in Banner Homes v St Albans City and DC [2016] UKUT 0232 (AAC), which was a challenge to the registration of an open area of land as an asset of community value under the Localism Act 2011. Banner Homes was the first case concerning assets of community value to go to the Upper Tribunal. It is currently on appeal to the Court of Appeal, with a hearing date in February 2018.

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 assisted with drafting objections to the registration of a village green, which covered many aspects of the test in s. 15(2) of the Commons Act 2006.

Housing

Caroline advises on a number of 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 of viability assessments for proposed housing development.