News and Resources
Below is a selection of news items, case notes, articles, books and papers authored by members of Chambers.
There is also a separate Archive of Inspector’s Reports in respect of applications to register new town or village greens.
Southbeats Festival Granted New Licence
At a packed hearing in front of Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council’s Licensing Sub-Committee, SBE Ltd we’re granted a licence for The Southbeats Festival 2019. The festival is now in its fourth year and has moved to a new site at The St Clere Estate in Sevenoaks. The licence application was opposed by 98 residents. The festival’s promoters employed Proud Events to assist with the running of the event. The licence was granted until 2am with a capacity of 15,000. Read more
FTB Barristers Acting on all Sides of the Riverside Energy Park DCO Hearings
The DCO issue specific hearings for the Riverside Energy Park have started in Bexley. The project is an integrated energy park (comprising waste energy recovery, waste anaerobic digestion, battery storage and solar generation) and an electrical connection to be built next to the applicant’s existing facility, the Riverside Resource Recovery Facility. Read more
Eastern Counties Leather Site - Success Confirmed With Full Award of Costs
The Inspector's decision on part of the historically contaminated former Eastern Counties Leather site (see earlier news item) has confirmed the grant of permission and granted the appellant a full award of costs. Read more
Stubbington Bypass CPO Confirmed by Secretary of State
The Secretary of State for Transport has confirmed the Stubbington Bypass Compulsory Purchase Order and Side Roads Order. The Orders, made by Hampshire County Council, underpin a £34m bypass road scheme around the village of Stubbington on the Gosport Peninsula, which is intended to unlock the economic potential of the area by improving access and reducing congestion, and to alleviate noise and air quality issues for local residents. Read more
Success on a Judicial Review Claim Issued 1 Year Out-of-Time
In Wardlaw v Milton Keynes Council & GUPI 6 Ltd (CO/669/2019), the Claimant, Mrs Wardlaw, sought permission one year out-of-time for judicial review (JR) of the decision of Milton Keynes Council to permit the demolition of a distribution warehouse and its replacement with a much larger warehouse. By mistake, the Council omitted thirteen conditions from the notice granting planning permission which its Development Control Committee (DCC) had decided should be included to protect the amenity of nearby residential occupiers. Read more
High Court Explains How People Over Wind Applies in UK in Two Leading Cases with FTB Barristers
The two joined cases, Crondall Parish Council v Secretary of State and Others (CO/3900/2018) and Canterbury City Council v Secretary of State (CO/3625/2018) are important for four reasons. First Crondall Parish Council was granted Aarhus costs protection by John Howell QC sitting as a deputy High Court Judge in a carefully reasoned judgement. Second Mr Justice Dove applied the approach of the European Court of Justice set out in Case C-323/17 People Over Wind rather than that of the Court of Appeal in Smyth (endorsing the Hart approach), to the relevance of mitigation to screening decisions about appropriate assessment (AA) in relation to Habitats and Birds Directive special protection sites. Third the same principle may well apply to screening decisions about EIA. Fourth the judge emphasised that the exercise of Champion discretion not to quash for justiciable errors did not permit courts to make their own planning judgements or strike new planning balances. Read more
Planning Permission for 370 Home Urban Extension in South Gloucestershire Refused on Appeal
Planning permission has been refused for a residential development of up to 370 dwellings on the edge of Thornbury in South Gloucestershire. The inquiry raised a number of interesting points including the approach to prematurity, locational sustainability, harm to designated and non-designated heritage assets, and the approach to take to the tilted balance in circumstances where South Gloucestershire Council was updating its plan and therefore relying on local housing need. Read more
Court of Appeal Gives First Ever Ruling on Village Green Trigger Events
The Court of Appeal has given useful guidance as to what constitutes a trigger event for the purposes of the Commons Act 2006. It rejected the narrow approach of the registration authority which had argued that “potential” in “identified for potential development” did no more than reflect the fact that a development plan could not compel the development of a particular piece of land. The Court did however recognise that prima facie identification of land for potential development could be contradicted by countervailing policies elsewhere in the plan. Read more
Eastern Counties Leather Revisited
The appeal has just been heard relating to a redevelopment proposal at Pampisford Industrial Estate on a part of the historically contaminated site formerly owned by Eastern Counties Leather, the defendants in the nuisance proceedings brought by Cambridge Water which went all the way to the House of Lords in the 1990s, Cambridge Water Ltd v. Eastern Counties Leather plc [1994] 2 AC 264. Read more
Controversial Tunbridge Wells CPO Inquiry Decision
Following a three week public inquiry, the Calverley Square Compulsory Purchase Order has been confirmed without amendment. The CPO was made under section 226(1)(a) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Acquisition of Land Act 1981 by Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. Read more