News & Updates

Triumph of community engagement at planning inquiry: recognition of the benefits of biodiversity for local and wider communities

Posted on 22nd January 20247th February 2024 in Legal News, Our Cases

The recent rejection of planning permission, sought by Buccleuch Properties (Kettering) Ltd, for logistics warehouses on a Local Wildlife Site (LWS) north of Kettering demonstrates what a local community can achieve on behalf of their local environment.

Under the umbrella of the Save Weekley Hall Wood (SWHW) campaign and supported by the Local Wildlife Trust, detailed ecological evidence about the environmental significance of the site was gathered by dedicated volunteers over a number of months and presented to the inquiry.

Such evidence would not have otherwise been forthcoming, the Council contesting the application for various reasons but not on ecological or biodiversity grounds. This, despite the fact that the LWS, which is a lowland meadow, a habitat designated as of ‘principal importance’ under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 (s.41), would have been almost entirely destroyed as a result of the development. Continue reading

A step forward in accessing environmental information

Posted on 18th August 2023 in Our Cases

Plymouth City Council reprimanded over fee charging policy

Public bodies that think they can deter persons seeking environmental information by charging them for it should think again.

In a letter to Plymouth City Council (PCC), following a complaint made on behalf of our client, the founder of Save the Trees of Armada Way (STRAW), the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued PCC with a strong rebuke. The ICO is clear that:

a blanket fee for charging after anything less than 18 hours of work (as applies under the Freedom of Information Act regime) is most likely unreasonable;
any fees imposed must not deter persons from requesting environmental information;
charges levied must not exceed the costs incurred for making the information available; and
crucially, it is not reasonable to charge where the information is of wider public interest, such as in this instance where PCC’s scheme involved felling over a hundred mature trees in the city centre.

Case update: rules on members’ right to vote at council meetings considered by the Court of Appeal in July 2023 R (the Spitalfields Historic Building Trust) v London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Old Truman Brewery [2023] EWCA Civ 917, [2023] 7 WLUK 446

Posted on 10th August 202318th August 2023 in Our Cases

The basic but important legal question in this case is whether a provision in a local authority’s constitution, whose effect was to restrict voting by members (in this case a Planning Committee), was lawful. The issue is of wide public importance. It goes to the ability of those who are elected to exercise the powers which they were elected to use. The power in question is the most basic one of an elected politician: the right to vote in decisions of the body to which they were elected. The case was brought by the Spitalfields Historic Building Trust (“the Trust”) who sought to challenge the controversial grant of planning permission by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to Old Truman Brewery to develop part of the Old Truman Brewery site on Brick Lane. The Trust were unsuccessful in the High Court but obtained permission to appeal from the Court of Appeal.

There were over 7,000 written objections. The headline objections included concerns about the introduction of large companies to the development, creation of a shopping mall, effect on local businesses, gentrification, community cohesion, proposed land uses on the site, impact to local character and businesses, concerns of design and scale causing harm to heritage assets, obscuring of views of the Truman chimney, amenity impact to neighbouring residents including daylight and sunlight impact to Woodseer Street and the lack of a development brief for the wider estate.

Cumulative impacts and carbon budgets

Posted on 14th July 202317th July 2023 in Legal News and tagged Climate Change

On 7 July 2023, Mrs Justice Thornton DBE handed down judgment in R (Boswell) v Secretary of State for Transport [2023] EWHC 1710 (Admin).

The case concerned three decisions of the Secretary of State for Transport to grant consent for three road schemes in Norfolk. In making his decision, the Secretary of State assessed the carbon emissions expected to be generated by each scheme and concluded that, when compared with the UK’s carbon budgets which span the period from 2023 to 2037, the increase in emissions from each of the three schemes (separately) is not significant (0.001%-0.004% of any carbon budget).

High Court considers government’s approval of Manston airport

Posted on 5th July 202317th July 2023 in Our Cases

The hearing of the judicial review against the government’s approval of a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the re-opening of Manston airport predominantly as a freight airport for a second time began today before Mr Justice Dove.

The hearing followed the grant of permission by Mrs Justice Lieven DBE in March on two main grounds: the need for the development and climate change.

Interim injunction against Plymouth City Council continued

Posted on 24th March 202317th July 2023 in Our Cases

Sir Ross Cranston ordered the continuation of the interim injunction obtained in the early hours of 15 March 2023 on behalf of Ms White, a Plymouth resident and founder of Save the Trees of Armada Way (STRAW) against Plymouth City Council in response to their late-night felling of 110 trees in the centre of Plymouth.

The decision to fell the trees was taken by the Leader of the Council, Richard Bingley, using urgency procedures to avoid call-in by councillors.