Expertise
Biography
Mark specialises in Planning and deals with a range of matters including applications and appeals, lawfulness issues (including Certificates of Lawfulness), High Court challenges and Judicial Reviews, section 106 agreements, highways (s38/s278) and drainage (s104) agreements, enforcement (including those related to listed buildings, and prosecutions for failure to comply with enforcement action), public rights of way and village greens matters, planning objections, compulsory purchase, and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).
Mark acts for a range of clients including PLC housebuilders, SME developers, supermarkets, charities, landowners, farmers, and individuals.
Examples of cases in which Mark has been involved include:
- Acting as advocate at an appeal hearing concerning a timber processing site in the Green Belt;
- Securing a very rare consent on appeal for a ‘Grand Designs’ style house under paragraph 80 (formerly paragraph 55) of the National Planning Policy Framework which allows consent to be granted for isolated homes in the countryside only if their design is of exceptional quality;
- Representing the applicant in respect of a large scale dairy unit at a 6 day public inquiry against significant opposition from a national heritage body and an international animal rights charity, and defending the subsequent High Court challenge to the planning permission by the animal rights charity;
- Advising clients in respect of applications concerning gypsies and travellers, the housing of asylum seekers, and the public sector equality duty;
- Advising clients in respect of changes to Welsh legislation regarding the use of second and holiday homes in Wales.
