Resident Group Services

The Land and Development Practice has the necessary expertise to act on behalf of ResidentGroups, Parish Councils and Local Stakeholders at the planning application and appeal stages of the planning process including Public Inquiry and Informal Hearings.  We ensure that the concerns of local residents are heard and that these concerns are given significant weight by the decision maker.  The team can also can advise on the best means to make formal representations and ensure that Resident Groups are intrinsically involved in the decisions which are made.

Because of our  expertise in minerals and waste planning, we can provide assistance to local residents groups and Parish Councils in objecting to any minerals, waste or renewable energy planning application. This assistance can range from helping to prepare objection letters to managing the lobbying of planning committee members and representation at planning inquiries.

In recent years, we have been successful in helping local communities defeat proposals for a hazardous waste gasifier, a biomass energy plant and a large opencast coal mine. We have represented a community in North Yorkshire with regard to the North Yorkshire Waste Core strategy; the Core Strategy was subsequently rejected at Examination. We have also obtained a significant reduction in the maximum subsidence limit for deep mining, set for a village community in Yorkshire. A consortium of Parish Councils and local resident groups have recently engaged the Practice to assist them in opposing a planning application for a waste incinerator in North Yorkshire that is being promoted by the County Council under a PFI contract.

Advice is given in a responsible manner and we will only provide assistance where there is a sound planning and environmental case to be made.