Add this expertise to your shortlist Examples of recent work in planning / public law sector
Planning inquiry: acting for a Southern League football club where the proposal involved the owner’s redevelopment of the ground and the club’s relocation to another ground.
Planning inquiry: acting for LPA in the case of significant development on a redundant nursery site in the Green Belt.
Planning inquiry: acting for a developer in cross-boundary appeal where the proposal involved limited enabling development within an urban greenfield site with a view to funding (i) the eradication of what is thought to be the largest spread of Japanese Knotweed in the UK (notably a case involving enabling development resulting in enhancement to the natural environment rather than to heritage assets), and (ii) the establishment of a community park.
Appeal hearing: acting for developer at an appeal hearing which was primarily concerned with setting and the principle of consistency in local decision-making.
Appeal hearing (pending): acting for a developer in the case of an appeal seeking outline permission for 9 houses where the application on appeal differs from the original refused scheme and engages the Wheatcroft principles.
Enforcement appeal: acted for landowner in respect of the change of use without planning permission of a farm building to a dwellinghouse.
JR challenge: by another football club to the grant of planning permission for replacement playing and other facilities arising from the closure of their ground which was sited in an area targeted for regeneration.
JR challenge: disputed standing in Planning Court where neither appellant had made objections during the appeal process and had merely lived in neighbouring properties (Crawford-Brunt v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2015] EWHC 3580 (Admin)).
JR challenge by community group to a temporary grant allowing 90 modular units for homeless persons on a former school site in South Wales.
Section 288 challenge against the decision of a PINS Inspector which proceeded to full hearing (NG8 2RJ Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] EWHC 470 (Admin)).
Planning advisory: advice on impact of nesting peregrines on tall building in implementing a planning permission (advice involved a consideration of the a developer’s liability in relation to the of protection of wild birds under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981).
Planning advisory: advice on whether, in the case of a redundant agricultural building, the work carried out was a rebuild rather than permitted development as a Class Q conversion and the permissibility of a retrospective planning application under section 73A TCPA 1990.
Planning enforcement
Enforcement: multiple appearances at enforcement and committal proceedings involving members of the gypsy traveller community.
Enforcement: hearing involving unlawful subdivision of a dwelling; the issue was whether children under the age of 18 counted as ‘residents’ for the purposes of a Class 4 use (Paramaguru v Ealing LBC [2018] EWHC 373 (Admin)).
Enforcement: advisory in a the case of a complaint by a farmer against the use of neighbouring land as a campsite in a sensitive coastal location in a National Park (advertised through an agency offering a number of such sites around the country online) which gave rise to prior approval PD which had been ignored.
Planning advisory: multiple advices on heritage issues (including those of setting and fragmentation and a proposal involving a Scheduled Monument (buried Roman artefacts)) and breaches of planning obligations and conditions.
Schools: advice on planning obligations which concerned developer delivery of school sites.
Neighbouring owner: advising in the case of a proposed 2-storey leisure centre (in the grounds of a Grade 2 listed hotel complex in a conservation area) involving significant impacts on habitats and the prospect of unacceptable light and noise pollution.
Excessive height: advice on tall buildings in Birmingham and London involving issues of excessive height and massing and adverse impact on the townscape, including the setting of heritage assets and harm to the historic environment (historic canals).
Habitats: multiple advices on assessments made under the Habitats Regulations along with disputed mitigation contributions and design issues affecting a 100-plus residential development close to European sites.
Green Belt: drafting written representations for developer in the case of an appeal involving infilling exception on a site in the Green Belt.
Control of advertisements: advice given on the likelihood of consent to the siting of an elevated digital display unit on a building overlooking a large roundabout having five exits and four entrances.
Professional negligence: advice on negligence against a planning consultant arising from failed applications for prior approval for a Class O use.
Solar Farm: advising a Parish Council on the recovery of promised community benefits arising from the development of a solar farm.
Highways
Judicial Review: acted for local authority in the case of a landowner’s unsuccessful JR challenge to a provisional DMMO (R (Monkton) v Staffordshire County Council [2022] EWHC 3049 (Admin)). The owner was found to have a suitable alternative remedy under the statutory procedure contained in Schedule 15 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Public inquiry: where a claimed public right of way (PROW) was not confirmed by the Secretary of State after a lengthy public inquiry where landowner was represented by a leading KC. Important issues at the inquiry included (i) the level of proof required to justify a finding that a PROW existed on the older documents (in a case where there was no evidence of actual use), and (ii) whether a declaration made by a Court of Quarter Sessions under the National Parks and Access to Countryside Act 1949 (section 31(1)(a)) that no PROW existed between points along the claimed way could be overcome by new evidence introduced under Part III of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (section 53).
Public Inquiry: acted for highway authority at a disputed confirmation appeal at a DMMO public inquiry where there were objections to the closure and diversion to a PROW, including in relation to disability discrimination (the new path had steps). The appeal outcome was reported.
Compensation claims: acting for local authority on claims for compensation arising out of highway works.
Village greens
Mr Webster has for several years sat as an non-statutory inspector at multiple public inquiries dealing with village green applications (his recommendation to the registration authority not to register was affirmed in the Supreme Court in R (NHS Property Services) v Surrey County Council [2019] UKSC 58). Mr Webster has also assisted a registration authority in dealing with a large backlog of TVG applications involving a high volume of advisory work within a relatively short period.
Assets of Community Value
Football: acted for a Southern League football club on the owner’s unsuccessful appeal against the listing of the ground as an asset of community value.
Football: acted for the listing authorities on the listing of the stadia of Old Trafford and Anfield.
Landowners: multiple advices (including drafting written submissions on law/fact to the listing authority) for owners of land affected by listing, including the listing of pubs in Somerset and Gravesend, and a redundant sports stadium complex in Swindon.
Landowners: acting on multiple occasions for landowners at listing review hearings.
Other notable recent work
5-day construction hearing (2024): acting for Cs whose premises comprised a south London boxing club and community centre operating within redundant church premises. Cs awarded damages of more than £400,000 (and 80% of their costs). Ds also ordered to carry out various works to remove trespass. The claim arose from the settlement of a flank wall abutting Cs’ premises that occurred during unsupported excavations for a basement on Ds side. Damages included the amount required for reinforcement of Cs foundations by a 20-week programme of remedial works involving the installation of a new ground beam which will sit on nine piles whose function is to support the damaged wall.
Unfair prejudice proceedings: acting for Petitioner in unfair prejudice proceedings. The land interest held by a connected company comprises a valuable development site.
Winding up: acting for a debtor seeking an injunction restraining the creditor from presenting (or advertising) a winding up petition.
Repair covenants and subsistence: advising multiple tenants of long leases in a large building in relation to long-standing breaches of landlord’s repairing covenants, including subsidence damage. Claim involved specific performance of repairing covenants and differing claims for damages for breach of covenant (including for loss of assessed rental value).
Land registration cases: multiple cases involving land registration issues including, in one case, where a restriction had not even been registered against the holder of the unregistered title and, in another, where the deed containing the restrictions had not even been executed by the original covenantor.
Restrictive covenants: multiple cases involving advisory work and the drafting of applications leading to hearings in the Upper Tribunal for orders for the discharge or modification of restrictive covenants under section 84 of the LPA 1925.
Land clean-up: successful application to discharge an order made under section 215 of the TCPA 1990 (under which an authority may take steps requiring land to be to be cleaned up when its condition adversely affects the amenity of an area).
Land option: acting for a local authority in the case of a disputed land option which did not run with the land and loss of chance damages against the original covenantor.
Coastal protection works: advice on liability in the case of loss arising from coastal protection works carried out by a coastal erosion management authority.
Coastal protection works: advising on regulatory functions in the case of coastal protection works and the delivery of Shoreline Management Plan policies.
Waste Recycling: High value litigation between operators involved in the management, disposal, and recycling of household waste.
Traveller site ownership: TOLATA dispute: and accounts involving ownership of a traveller site.
Right of Way: acting for freeholder in an action for an injunction and damages arising from the use of a vehicular right of way by a large garden centre for the sale of goods outside the range of goods permitted to be sold within the scope of the permitted right of way.
Right to light loss: advice on claim and assessment of quantum arising from overshadowing commercial development in an historic street in Bath.
Quiet enjoyment: acting on breach of the covenant for quiet enjoyment/derogation from grant in the case of the acts or omissions of a commercial landlord.
Nuisance: multiple claims involving interferences with domestic and business-use rights of way giving rise to issues over the physical extent of the claimed way, the quality of the permissible use, the remedy required to abate the nuisance of which complaint is made, the assessment of loss for obstruction and the recovery of sums spent on improvements.
Business loss: claim to set aside Tomlin Order (in a case involving a settlement of a number of claims and cross-claims by a business tenant and his landlord) which lacked prudent safeguards along with an associated trespass to goods claim arising from the removal by the landlord of externally located refrigeration plant which it was claimed resulted in severe financial loss to the tenant’s business.
Local Authority powers: advising a local authority on their powers to override easements and restrictive covenants under the Housing and Planning Act 1996 (ss.203-4) and in the case of the exercise of statutory powers, including advice on the authority’s power of appropriation and sale where land is affected by third party rights.
