Local Government

Our expertise includes all aspects of local government law and procedures, including local government finance, standards, procedure, maladministration and election law.

We are noted in Chambers & Partners (2007) as having a "handsome" range of work in this field, which is reflected in the fact that three members of Chambers feature amongst the top leading silks in this area of practice.

In addition to rating and licensing, examples of recent work include:

• Several recent cases concerning bias in local government, including R Port Regis School Ltd. v. North Dorset District Council (whether membership of the Freemasons was a prejudicial interest), and R (Condron) v. National Assembly for Wales (prior expression of opinion in advance of decision).
• Advising the Mayor of London and Transport for London concerning revisions to the Mayor's Transport Strategy and his Air Quality Strategy and in respect of two scheme orders under the Greater London Authority Act 1999, one extending the Congestion Charging Zone to Kensington and Chelsea, and one proposing a Low Emission Zone for Greater London.
• R (Walmsley) v. Lane concerning the powers of the parking adjudicator in connection with collection of penalty charges.
• LB Barnet v. Parking Adjudicator (validity of penalty charge notices (parking tickets) in Greater London.
• Litigation involving the licensing of pedicabs in London.
• Hardy v. (1) Pembrokeshire County Council (2) Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority & (1) Dragon LNG Ltd (2) South Hook LNG Terminal Co Ltd (3) Health and Safety Executive (4) Milford Haven Port Authority (concerning the interrelationship of the exercise of different jurisdictions between the County Council, the National Park Authority, the Harbour Board and the Health and Safety Executive, as well as the relationship between planning control, hazardous waste and pipeline consents together with European requirements for EIA and articles 2 and 8 of the Human Rights Act).

Members of Chambers have also been involved in a number of cases involving both the Commissioner for Local Administration and the Parliamentary Commissioner as well as the Standards Board for England. Recent notable cases include:

• R v. Commissioner for Local Administration, ex parte Turpin (legal constraints on the Local Government Ombudsman)
• R v. Parliamentary Commissioner, ex parte Balchin (Nos. 1,2 and 3) (legal constraints on the Parliamentary Ombudsman).

Further examples of work involving the powers and responsibilities of local government in fields such as planning, rating, licensing, compulsory purchase, compensation, and administrative law are given in the other sections of our website.