The effect of the Government’s on line Planning Practice Guidance
This is a repeat in Birmingham
10 March 2015, 9.30am – 1.00pm, Weightmans, Birmingham
Presented by Weightmans and Sharpe Pritchard
Seminar overview
On the 6^th March 2014, the Department of Communities and Local Government (“DCLG”) launched its online national planning practice guidance. According to DCLG, for the first time, planning practice guidance is now available entirely online. In an accompanying written statement, the DCLG Minister Nick Boles stated that the previous planning practice guidance had been cancelled. On closer sight, it appears that not all of the previous advice has been cancelled. For instance, while the well-used Circular 11/95 on planning conditions has been cancelled, the model conditions (in Annex A) are retained. The planning practice guidance is to be updated as needed and users are able to sign up for email alerts on specific topics. The planning practice guidance has useful cross-references to the National Planning Policy Framework (issued on the 27^th March 2012). The Framework must be taken into account in preparation of local plans and neighbourhood plans and is a material consideration in planning decisions. This means that local planning authorities, in particular, need to be alert to the changes introduced via the national planning practice guidance. This session will address some of the planning and environmental topics in the guidance and will assess the effect of various policy changes and how these impact on the role of local planning authorities. There have been a number of important cases dealing with the implications of the Framework and the session will also highlight key gaps in the NPPG. This seminar will also cover case law and further developments on related issues.
Topics to be covered include the following sections within the planning practice guidance:

• Prematurity
• Duty to Cooperate
• Heritage Duty and recent case law
• Environmental impact assessment and the impact of the new EIA Directive
• Land affected by contamination – where do we go now the contaminated land regime is defunct?
• The overlap between the planning regime and the environmental permitting regime – the status quo.
• Determination of planning applications
• Use of conditions
• Planning obligations
• Viability issues
• Climate change
• Related case law and further developments

Speaker profiles:
Simon Colvin is a partner at Weightmans and heads the national environment team. He specialises in all aspects of UK, EU and international environmental law and policy. Simon has extensive experience across a range of sectors and regularly advises both private and public sector organisations often working with waste operators, manufacturers, water companies, energy generators and developers as well as central government, local authorities and regulators on environment and consenting matters. He speaks and publishes regularly on environmental issues. Simon works closely with IEMA and writes regularly for the Environmentalist and is a co-opted member of the CIWMs Northwest Group
Lee Gordon is a partner at Weightmans and heads the national planning team. He specialises in all aspects of planning and related law and has advised on some of the most complex projects in the country, including on the first major infrastructure project to pass through the novel 2008 Act procedures. He has advised both local authorities and promoters on various sustainable urban extension projects, including complex section 106 agreements and advising in Plans Committee.  He has also advised a range of clients in relation to Core Strategy examinations and major compulsory purchase order schemes.  He is described in Chambers & Partners 2015 as “brilliant – he’s bright, hard-working, astute and a commercial pragmatist.”
Brian Hurwitz is a partner at Sharpe Pritchard and heads the planning law team. He has many years’ experience, both in the public sector and in private practice.  He has advised local authorities on plan-making and development management and has negotiated and prepared section 106 agreements on developments involving important strategic and/or regional sites. He has frequently spoken at seminars and client training events and has written articles in the Journal of Planning and Environmental Law and Planning magazine and in Westlaw Insight.
Lorna Bowry is a senior solicitor at Sharpe Pritchard.  She has considerable experience, including as an in-house local authority lawyer. She deals with a wide range of planning matters, including negotiating and preparing section 106 agreements on developments of strategic and/or regional importance, preparing agreements under section 278 of the Highways Act 1980 and advising on planning enforcement and related policy issues. She has frequently spoken at seminars and client training events.  
How to book
To book a place on this seminar please contact Julie Scheller on 0845 272 5701 or email julie.scheller@freeths.co.uk