With the constantly evolving planning system, it is more important than ever to obtain specialist advice on how the current legislation, national and local planning policies and material considerations impact on your development proposals. The Localism Bill, set to abolish regional spatial strategies containing regional house building targets and introduce neighbourhood plans and the Community Right to Build to assist community development plans, will, no doubt, have a marked effect. The planning team at Thrings works for property developers, retailers, investors and landowners, in conjunction with planning consultants, land agents and architects, in the interests of their commercial priorities and business needs.

At Thrings, we advise and represent clients on all aspects of contentious and non-contentious planning issues in England and Wales ranging from application advice and planning agreements to appeals in respect of enforcement notices and the refusal/non determination of planning applications. The team has particular expertise in representing clients on statutory challenges and judicial review claims in the High Court. We also advise on Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) and town and village green matters. The team deals with a range of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) development including intensive agriculture & livestock operations, Energy from Waste (EfW) schemes and renewables involving technologies such as, photovoltaics and wind.

We advise on:

• securing planning permission
• certificates of lawfulness applications
• appeals against enforcement notices
• appeals against the refusal/non-determination of planning applications
• statutory appeals and judicial review
• planning and infrastructure agreements
• permitted development rights
• compulsory purchase
• town and village greens

Recent matters the team has advised on include:

• Successfully defended injunction proceedings in Benford v Hart District Council, which was widely reported.
• Successfully representing a client on a s.78 appeal regarding a change of use of sui generis premises to commercial premises and obtaining an award of costs.
• Bringing a successful judicial review claim against the Ministry of Defence, concerning the misapplication of the Crichel Down Rules.
• Securing Certificates of Lawful Use for various developments including a storage site (B8) in the Green Belt and residential annexes and independent dwellings.
• Successfully appealing against Enforcement Notices relating to a variety of breaches and obtaining awards of costs.
• Successfully challenging Inspector’s decisions regarding planning and enforcement notice appeals and bringing judicial review claims on behalf of resident groups.
• Drafting and negotiating planning obligations and infrastructure agreements with the relevant local authority relating to housing, visitor accommodation, office and industrial developments.
• Preparing objections to proposed compulsory purchase orders such as those relating to Rapid Transit Schemes, negotiating claims with Acquiring Authorities’ valuers and referring compensation claims to the Lands Chamber of the Upper Tribunal.