Planning/environment
In terms of particular cases that have stood out during his career, Peter highlights a Court of Appeal case: Trim v North Dorset District Council . “This case was about the breach of condition notices under a section of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990,” he explains. “The problem with planning law is that it’s quite esoteric. With this case, there was no decided law on the particular point we were dealing with and since I won the case, I regard it as something of a minor triumph.” Another standout case for Peter involves an eroded footpath by the River Severn. “The question in this case was what should happen to the people who use the footpath – for example, could the footpath be moved into the adjacent land or had it simply ceased to exist?” “We spent about three days arguing about this in the High Court”, before the judge ruled that this wouldn’t be feasible and the footpath was no more – “from a lawyer’s point of view it was great fun.” ( R (Gloucester CC) v Secretary of State ). Planning trends The nature of law, and in this case planning law, is that there are constant changes and developments. “The government spends a lot of its time making fundamental changes to the planning system,” Peter says. “There was a white paper published three or four years ago, which has just been substantially put on hold because it generated a huge amount of opposition.” What other trends should aspiring barristers interested in this practice area watch out for? Ongoing delays in appeals as a result of covid-19, challenges coming to light over the increasing use of remote technology and the types of hearing that can be conducted over Zoom or Teams, the pressures for local authorities to digitalise their records and the
Planning law regulates how property owners use and develop their property in the interests of the wider community. Local planning authorities are required to follow a legal and policy framework in their decision making. Planning law is often interwoven with other branches of the law, such as environmental, local government and judicial review. Clients might include landowners, developers, local authorities, public and private utilities, government departments, amenity groups and individuals. It’s a vital tool for regulating the use of land in the public (by which we normally mean, the community) interest. As a child, Peter Wadsley would listen to his father, a solicitor in local government, “grumble about the planning work he had to do”. These evenings spent engaging in his father’s work inadvertently influenced Peter’s career trajectory. Having started in the legal profession as a solicitor like his father, Peter eventually made the decision to qualify as a barrister. The transition to the Bar meant Peter had the chance to do “higher-level advocacy” while also having “more control” over his work. “I was generally always interested in planning,” Peter says. “However, when I started out at the Bar, I worked in criminal, family and general common law”, before following in his father’s footsteps to specialise in “planning, highways and local government”. Peter is now head of the public and administrative practice group at St John’s Chambers. Advocacy and minor triumphs The work in this area involves a “fair amount of High Court advocacy”, which was one of the main draws for Peter. He adds: “There’s also quite a lot of public inquiries in front of inspectors and then, more generally, we also do the advisory work that comes with being any kind of lawyer, from writing opinions to drafting documents.”
For more chambers that work in this practice area, please use the ‘Pupillage index’.
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