News

On 28 February 2021 Morag Ellis QC delivered a lecture to Public Law Wales and the Welsh Legal History Society on her role as Dean of the Arches and Auditor and Master of the Faculty Office.
A transcript of the lecture can be found here.
On Monday 1 February Morag (together with Michael Brendan Brett) delived a webinar on Planning for Data and Storage.

Yesterday afternoon (1 February 2020) Saira Kabir Sheikh QC and Michael Fry were instructed to resist an application for urgent consideration and urgent interim relief made by a trespasser currently in a tunnel below Euston Square Gardens. The occupation is very high profile, and has been featured on all the major new networks and newspapers, for example:
The Sun The Guardian The BBC
The...

An order made under s.247 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (“the 1990 Act”) stopping up land near to a bus stop in the centre of Knowle, Solihull, has been quashed by consent in the High Court (CO/4680/2020).
The Open Spaces Society (“OSS”) challenged the order on the basis that the Secretary of State for Transport erred by (i) declining to convene an inquiry without “special...

The Supreme Court is today hearing the appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision in Campaign to Protect Rural England – Kent Branch v SSCLG [2019] EWCA Civ 1230 (judgment here).
The issue before the Court which is potentially of very wide importance is whether a claimant in statutory and judicial review cases who is unsuccessful at the permission stage should be liable for the costs of...

Mrs Justice Steyn has today handed down judgment in Malvern Hills DC v Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government [2021] EWHC 129 (Admin).
The case concerned the grant of planning permission for the storage of ex-British Railways steam operated crane ADRS 9500 for demonstrations at the Welland Steam and Country Rally, in a shed erected across a public foot-path without...

Thurston Parish Council has launched a judicial review against Mid Suffolk Council challenging the grant of planning permission to Bloor Homes for a housing development of 210 units outside the settlement boundary established in the recently made Thurston Neighbourhood Plan.
The Council granted planning permission in reliance on the site’s draft allocation for development in the emerging Babergh...

The Court of Appeal has handed down judgment in R (ClientEarth) v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2021] EWCA Civ 43 – judgment available here.
The grounds of challenge concerned the interpretation of National Policy Statements for Energy EN-1 and EN-2 and the application of s.104(7) of the Planning Act 2008. The Court of Appeal held that in making the Drax...

The High Court has today handed down two judgments in R (UTAG & LTDA) v Transport for London & Mayor of London [2021] EWHC 72 (Admin) and R (UTAG & LTDA) v Transport for London & Mayor of London [2021] EWHC 73 (Admin), allowing the two conjoined claims for judicial review brought by two trade bodies representing the 'Black Cab' industry (the United Trade Action Group and the...

Antrim and Newtownabbey last night resolved to grant planning permission for a replacement pig farm outside Ballyclare following a contested committee
hearing.
The development was a “major development” under the Planning (Development Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015. It will involve the demolition
of the existing pig farm, and replacement with a modern pig farm with three new...

A planning inspector has dismissed a s.78 appeal for the provision of a new school for 1,000+ pupils together with a number of new grass and artificial sports pitches as well a new sports pavilion for the school and a new club house for Maidenhead Hockey Club in the Green Belt. The application had initially been refused by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM).
The proposal for...