Year of call: 2013
Practice areas: Planning, Environment, Licensing, Compulsory Purchase and Compensation, Major Infrastructure Projects, Local Government, Regulatory Crime, Rating, Public Law
Public Access
Caroline welcomes instructions to advise and represent clients across all of Chambers' practice areas.
Her main areas of interest include:
In appropriate cases, Caroline is happy to work on a pro-bono basis.
Caroline is currently ranked as one of the top planning barristers under 35 (Planning Magazine, 2017).
Caroline has a wide-ranging planning practice and regularly advises on planning matters, appearing for both developers and local authorities in planning appeals, judicial reviews and statutory challenges.
Recent and ongoing work includes:
Development Plans and Housing Land Supply: Caroline (acting as a junior to Simon Bird QC) is instructed to advise a local authority on the preparation of their development plan documents. She has also advised on fulfilling the duty to cooperate and has been involved in a number of inquiries at which five year housing land supply was at issue.
Enforcement and Certificates of Lawful Development: Caroline has acted as sole counsel in a number of enforcement and lawful development certificate inquiries and hearings. Examples of her work includes appearing for the London Borough of Harrow in an inquiry concerning the application of the decision in Miaris, acting in a hearing concerning the question of whether a swimming pool enclosure was sufficiently permanent and fixed to the ground to constitute 'development', and advising in respect of the change of use of small houses in multiple occupation to separate self-contained flats.
Heritage Assets: Caroline has a good understanding of the law relating heritage assets. She has advised the owner of a Grade II* listed building located within the setting of a Grade I listed church on the approach that a local authority would take to granting planning permission and listed building consent, with a particular focus on the impact of setting. She has also advised on the extent of the curtilage of a listed building.
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 frequently advises on the steps required to discharge planning conditions. Caroline recently advised on the lawfulness of a car free clause in a s. 106 agreement in respect of residential development in a London borough.
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 with advising a landowner seeking to appeal against a removal notice issued by a local authority.
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.
Caroline has experience of a variety of issues relating to environmental law.
Recent and ongoing work includes:
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 also recently 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.
Compulsory Purchase and Compensation
Caroline has a strong interest in compulsory purchase matters and is a member of the Young Compulsory Purchase Association Committee.
As a pupil, Caroline gained extensive experience of compulsory purchase issues due to all three of her supervisors being experienced compulsory purchase practitioners. She assisted with petitions before the HS2 Parliamentary Select Committee and with the promotion of a compulsory purchase order relating to a large urban regeneration scheme in south London.
Caroline has also undertaken research for a complicated case in the Lands Chamber concerning injurious affection under s.10 of the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965.
Caroline was instructed (as junior to Richard Glover QC) on Mainline Pipeline v Colston, a case in the Upper Tribunal (which ultimately settled) 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 and the setting aside of liability orders.
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.
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.
Caroline represents the police, local authorities and applicants at licensing sub-committee hearings and on appeal in the Magistrates’ Court.
Recent work includes:
Caroline has written a series of articles published in the Journal of Licensing.
Caroline regularly advises on a number of matters relating to the Housing Act 2004. Recent examples relate to:
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.
Caroline is currently instructed as a Treasury appointed 'Junior Junior' in Speciality Produce Limited v DEFRA, a Francovich claim brought by a producer organization in relation to the Rural Payment Agency's administration of the EU Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme.
Caroline is also regularly instructed by the Government Legal Department to work on immigration cases.
Qualifications
As part of her undergraduate degree, Caroline participated in the European Erasmus Programme, spending a year studying European, Spanish and Catalan law at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.
Scholarships
Prizes
Prior to coming to the Bar, Caroline worked as a research assistant and teaching fellow in public law at University College London.
Caroline also spent a year providing legal assistance to the Dame Janet Smith Review, a private review established by the BBC to investigate issues connected with the Jimmy Savile scandal and the culture and practices of the BBC during the period that he worked there.
Caroline is a member of the following associations:
Caroline regularly speaks at seminars and training sessions both in Chambers and elsewhere. She has recently presented papers on the Housing White Paper, assets of community value under the Localism Act 2011, and the environmental law implications of Brexit.
Caroline was born and brought up in Glasgow. She spends the majority of her holidays in Scotland, where she enjoys walking in Loch Lomond and around St Andrews and the East Neuk of Fife, and climbing the odd Munro.
Caroline is a keen linguist and attends Spanish evening classes. Her other main interests include art and architecture, travel, and theatre. She is also an avid reader, mostly of modern and contemporary fiction.
Caroline is a school governor at Stoke Newington School and Sixth Form College.
The High Court has refused permission for a s.288 claim that sought to challenge the decision of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, taken earlier this year, to allow an... More
Francis Taylor Building is delighted with Planning magazine’s Planning Law Survey 2017. With 14 silks and 14 juniors named in the survey, Francis Taylor Building’s barristers remain counsel of... More
