The Planning Podcast

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 Finch helps with these questions and we are guided through that judgment, which was decided 2:1 – so, a case giving rise to dissent.

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.

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 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 those cases. With Howard Leithead and Harj Narulla, Richard Kimblin QC takes in different perspectives on climate litigation, with no blah.

Article: 
https://www.no5.com/media/news/greenpeace-fails-in-attempt-to-challenge-bp-s-vorlich-field/

Webinar: 
https://youtu.be/RZq1bojW6iI

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 Davies, planning and environmental barrister at No 5 Chambers. Together, they bring Richard Kimblin QC up to speed with the policy and legal vision in Wales and how and why it differs from that in England. With both planning and environmental reform in England now on foot, it’s a great time to look to Wales and learn.

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 Kimblin QC explores the practical problems which can cause local plan examinations to take years, and what might be done to help.

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 structures and a particular role for Government in forward planning. 
We are grateful to all of Richard Kimblin QC’s guests: Satnam Choongh, Catriona Riddell, Dave Valler (Oxford Brookes) and Daniel Francis (Carter Jonas) for contributing to this episode which seeks out the primary rationale for the Ox-Cam Arc, how the spatial vision can be identified with a consensus might produce something like the RPG which some of us recall.

'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 practical work arounds? There is quite a lot in that, as Jack Smyth explains to Richard Kimblin QC.

Including update from 4th May ancillary judgement.