Landmark holds its annual Planning High Court Challenges conference

Today Landmark held its annual Planning High Court Challenges conference at the Law Society.

There were nearly 150 delegates.

Tim Mould QC chaired in the morning session and I chaired in the afternoon.

I began by speaking on recent developments in Practice & Procedure including the Government’s response to its consultation on “Costs Protection in Environmental Claims” published last week. Sasha Blackmore then looked at the Courts approach to interpreting planning permissions following Trump including cases such as Dunnett Investments, University of Leicester, Menston Action Group, XPL Ltd and  Skelmersdale.

In the next session Robert Walton looked at the latest case-law on housing supply including Oadby. Heather Sargent examined recent CPO challenges including the non-confirmation of the Aylesbury Estate, Southwark CPO and also the cases of Horada and Grafton. Alistair Mills (see here) provided an update on NPPF case law focussing on NPPF decision-making, the meaning of “sustainable development” and the Green Belt.

After lunch Zoe Leventhal provided an EIA update looking at cases such as Headcorn, Birchall, Jedwell and CPRE Kent.

David Elvin QC provide a habitats update that included cases from Luxembourg, England, Scotland and even Sweden! Dan Kolinsky QC then turned to the discretion not to quash looking at s. 31 (2A) and the emerging case-law on that provision as well as the mixed messages from the Court of Appeal on discretion not to quash in the cases of Gerber, Smech and South Gloucestershire.

In the final session Nathalie Lieven QC looked at Heritage challenges after Mordue and asked whether it was business as usual. Neil Cameron QC looked at CIL challenges in the High Court both under reg. 122 of the CIL Regulations but also looked at CIL as a tax. Finally Tim Buley looked at Challenges on procedural fairness in the conduct of planning appeals focussing on the Turner and Broadview cases.

Thanks to everyone who attended.