The Planning Podcast

The Planning Podcast returns this new year for a very particular purpose and that is pupillage – the on the job training which is required for practice. It is a very hard position to secure and a testing and formative process for those who do obtain a pupillage. That application process opened last week, so lets talk about it. Planning and environmental law is not on the radar of every law student...

In this episode of the Planning Podcast,  we go on journey; a sustainable journey around the Duchy of Cornwall’s development at Nansledan, Newquay, in Cornwall. But our journey is an ambitious one – a journey around an urban extension which really is a new place – which is walkable – which creates an economy and establishes a community. We have two guides. Lord Matthew Taylor is a key thinker behi...

Environmental statements and climate change impact – [1] Dissent in the Court of Appeal In this episode of the Planning Podcast, Richard Kimblin QC is joined by Harj Narulla to help listeners get to grips with a tricky set of issues: what is an EIA project?; in what way do climate change effects have to be taken into account in an ES?; and what can lawfully be left out of account? The case of Finc...

More climate change assessment – [2] Dissent in the High Court In this episode of the Planning Podcast, Richard Kimblin QC is joined by Will Rundle, Head of Legal at Friends of the Earth, to outline how, in the opinion of one judge in the High Court, an unreasonable assessment of climate effects can make a decision unlawful. Unusually, two judges sat to hear the case, brought by FoE. One of them f...

Planning takeaways from the White Paper. In this episode, Sioned Davies picks out the key messages which have an impact on town centres, employment land policy, Green Belt and devolution, so that you do not have to read all four documents and the 332 page White Paper.

In this edition the Planning Podcast looks at the relationship between environmental regulators, the courts and the planning system. With his guests, Odette Chalaby and Carl Copestake (Knights LLP), Richard Kimblin QC turns to the recent Court of Appeal decision in R (oao) Mathew Richards v Environment Agency [2022] EWCA Civ 26.

In this practical take on motorway service areas and Green Belt very special circumstances, Christian Hawley and Thea Osmund-Smith join Richard Kimblin QC in identifying the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ in this competitive area of work.

A challenge to a North Sea consent might not immediately strike you as a ’need to know’. But if you do need to know any of the following, listen in: (1) what happens if EIA development is adverstised in breach of the regulations; (2) how do you assess the carbon impacts of a development? (3) is climate litigation on an uptick? (4) why do claimants bring climate cases? (5) what are the targets for...

Back for the autumn, the Planning Podcast turns to a five-case legal update. What did you miss while enjoying the summer? Leanne Buckley-Thomson and Oliver Lawrence provide great insights into what can go badly wrong at planning committees and whether an interested party in a JR can recover some of its costs, amongst many other snippets.

In this episode, The Planning Podcast looks to Wales for a lead. We find positive, modern and innovative approaches to the environment, building a cohesive society and planning for development at a strategic scale. The lead is extending and changing as so ably discussed by Dr Victoria Jenkins, associate professor of law at Swansea University, David Harries, Partner at Aaron and Partners and Sioned...

The Planning Podcast looks at the long, indeed the seemingly never-ending, examination and considers the scope for and potential impact of reform. With guests Jerry Youle, Inspector and Professional Lead for local plans at the Planning Inspectorate, Satnam Choongh, Planning and Environmental barrister at No5 Chambers, Tim Burden and David Murray-Cox, each planning Directors at Turley, Richard Kimb...

The Ox-Cam Arc . In one of the Planning Podcast’s ‘long-listens’, we bring together guests with long experience and real insight into planning for one of England’s most complex and dynamic areas in which so much is playing out: linear infrastructure; local and London’s unmet housing need; connecting hubs of growth and innovation; spatial strategies across districts and regions; new governance stru...

'Let’s meet!’ - what does that mean?  In a rather more formal context, that is what the High Court had to decide last week with the widely reported outcome that local authority council meetings may not continue to take place virtually in England, absent primary legislation.  That is the spoiler about the result of the case, but how and why did we get to that position and what are the practica...

The Planning Podcast turns to look at the practical effect of town and village green registration through the case of TW Logistics. Where a long standing use and activity co-exists with recreational uses, will that activity mean that the landowner will commit an offence under the ‘Victorian Statutes’?  Richard Kimblin QC’s guests are Rowena Meager and Sioned Davies, both planning and environmental...

As we approach the anniversary of remote working, Richard Kimblin QC and guests share practical tips and guidance for future virtual and hybrid hearings, inquiries, examinations and trials.  Richard is delighted to introduce Sioned Davies to The Planning Podcast, joined by regulars Oliver Lawrence and Howard Leithead, all planning and environmental barristers at No5 Chambers. What have we learnt o...

Richard Kimblin QC hosts a short podcast with Satnam Choongh and Christian Hawley, planning and environmental barristers at No5 Chambers, to look at two cases from the Court of Appeal which address the tilted balance. When and how do you get to the presumption in favour of sustainable development, and what may lawfully be done with it when it is in play?

Planning Podcast 101 - adding Court of Appeal cases on paragraphs 11 and 90 of the Framework in the same short podcast! Looking at routes to the presumption in favour of sustainable development and what retail policy in paragraph 90 means. With Satnam Choongh, planning and environmental barrister at No5 Chambers, Richard Kimblin QC introduces the first of a pair of Planning Podcasts looking at pra...

Spotting key themes and evolving issues from 2020, the top tips team turns to small housing sites; the continued impact and evolution of the Rosewell Review (with a paper from Howard Leithead here ); the recovery, a top tip from Leanne Buckley-Thomson (which also the subject of a note here ) and an issue which will dominate for decades to come - climate. With sincere thanks for lending us your ear...

With the ever-up-to-date-team of Leanne Buckley Thomson, Howard Leithead and Oliver Lawence,  a package of what has made them sit up and take notice in the planning and environmental world in the last couple of weeks: highways impacts and the Framework, a curious consent in Snowdonia and an update on penalties for environmental offences.

You might think it is obvious – you increase housing land supply, you improve affordability. That is a premise of much forward planning and of Planning for the Future. Is that correct and straightforward, or not? Here, in detailed examination of the issues, in a deliberately ‘long-listen’ we are joined by Dr Nikodem Szumilo, Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Ma...

The Planning Podcast turns to design, coding and making beautiful places for communities. With Professor Robert Adam, in conversation with Leanne Buckley-Thompson, planning and environmental barrister at No5 Chambers. Leanne gets us focussed on what is happening and proposed, Professor Adam maps out what we can achieve with more certainty of design and what the consequences tend to be for communit...

With the ever-up-to-date-team of Leanne Buckley Thompson, Howard Leithead and Oliver Lawence they have packaged up a short and quick fire review of what has made them sit up and take notice in the planning world in the last couple of weeks.

First up for the Autumn is the Environment Bill and more particularly, environmental targets – what are they replacing, what is industry, affected sectors and the Government’s thinking on how those targets should best be set; how and when are they enforced; and what has running a marathon got to do with it? With Nina Pindham, planning and environmental barrister at No5 Chambers, Council member and...

Richard Kimblin QC is joined by Scott Stemp & Howard Leithead, planning and environmental barristers from No5 Chambers, about planning enforcement, the issues arising with the Covid-restrictions, and a great new book!

Tim Jones & Hashi Mohamed help us with current issues with neighbourhood plans.