Practice Profile

Keith Lindblom has acted in a wide range of important and high-profile cases. His practice spans work both for those who promote and for those who oppose major schemes of development -landowners, developers and central and local government clients - and also bodies that become involved as third parties.
He is engaged at all stages of the process: advising clients on the formulation and presentation of their schemes, on pre-application discussions and on environmental impact assessment, and appearing for them in appeals and call-ins and at development plan inquiries, as well as on applications to the High Court and appeals to the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords.
Lindblom's work embraces a broad spread of public law activity: not merely planning and environment law, but also the law relating to Transport and Works Act Orders, compulsory purchase and local government law, both generally and in particular as it bears on the development and use of land. In all of these areas he performs the twin roles of strategic adviser and specialist advocate. His forte lies not in any individual area of practice but in his versatility across a spectrum of work including all forms of commercial and residential development, major infrastructure (encompassing roads, railways, airports and reservoirs), energy and waste.

"Keith Lindblom QC is ‘at the top of his game,' with an ‘exceptional intellect' and ‘first-class cross-examination skills.' His approachability, thoroughness and ‘talent for homing in on the winning details' also come in for praise. Chambers & Partners, 2009
"Keith Lindblom ‘exudes star quality' ... [he is noted for his] ‘charm' and ‘authoritative presence in difficult situations." Chambers & Partners, 2006

Cases of Note

• Stansted Airport Expansion - leading the team of counsel for BAA on the expansion and redevelopment of Stansted Airport
  
• Associated British Ports - Dibden Bay, in the High Court - relates to soundness of new-style development plan documents.
  
• Keith Lindblom QC appeared for the Hong Kong Government in the High Court on a very important case regarding the interpretation of the Hong Kong planning legislation.
  
• Oxford University - Bodleian Depository - redevelopment of library.
  
• King's Cross Triangle Redevelopment - in the High Court.
  
• Advising London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham regarding the Westfield Shopping Centre.
  
• Giving strategic advice to Royal Mail.
  
• Schroder/Stanhope's objections to the draft Replacement Unitary Development Plan for Croydon (relating to the mixed-use regeneration scheme designed by Foster & Partners for the Croydon Gateway site) - This six year case has moved on in the last year to incorporate a call-in inquiry and a CPO side. Which Secretary of State won convincingly.
  
• The joint venture formed by Taylor Wimpey and Hutchinson Whampoa to promote Sir Terry Farrell's scheme for the regeneration of Lots Road Power Station
  
• Dagenham Dock Extension to DLR - Transport and Works Order
  
• Redevelopment of the Isleworth Crown Court and Guildhall Crown Court; which will see the House of Lords lose its role as a court and its powers transferred to the Supreme Court, which will sit in the former Middlesex Guildhall in Westminster Square.
  
• Advising Centre Parcs on its project for a holiday village in the Green Belt.

Experience

As the boundary between planning law and environmental law becomes increasingly indistinct, Lindblom is now often called upon to guide complex and innovative projects through various statutory procedures, in particular in the field of major infrastructure proposals. Most cases in which he is instructed combine both planning and environment law.

MAJOR INQUIRIES

Planning

• Appeared for the Home Office in the Court of Appeal in resisting a challenge to the First Secretary of State's approval of a strongly-opposed asylum-seekers' accommodation centre at Bicester
  
• Client: National Trust at the inquiry into the Highways Agency's road proposals at Stonehenge
  
• Worked for St. George in its controversial and successful pursuit of consent for the Vauxhall Tower, which will be the tallest residential building in London
  
• The joint venture formed by Taylor Woodrow and Hutchinson Whampoa to promote Sir Terry Farrell's scheme for the regeneration of Lots Road Power Station
  
• The National Society for Epilepsy in its recent appeal on an application for permission for the redevelopment of its facilities at Chalfont St. Peter
  
• Currently advising Thames Water both on its desalination plant in East London and also on a major resource in the Upper Thames area
  
• Stannifer Multiplex on a proposed new settlement near Cambridge
  
• Center Parcs on its project for a holiday village in the Green Belt
  
• Consortia of developers and landowners pursuing major house-building proposals at Cardiff and at Milton Keynes
  
• Land Securities on their application for the regeneration of central Cardiff and the related compulsory purchase order
  
• The proponents of a regional multi-modal distribution depot in Kent
  
• Coca Cola on a rebottling plant for its operations in Ireland
  
• Minerva Tower in the City of London - which he helped to steer through the planning process without the application being called in
  
• The Battersea Power Station redevelopment
  
• Westminster City Council's claim for judicial review of the First Secretary of State's direction relating to the adoption of the affordable housing policy in the Replacement Unitary Development Plan for the City of Westminster
  
• Schroder/Stanhope's objections to the draft Replacement Unitary Development Plan for Croydon (relating to the mixed-use regeneration scheme designed by Foster & Partners for the Croydon Gateway site)
  
• Stanhope/Chelsfield's proposals for Stratford City - a huge regeneration scheme in east London

Environment

• Judicial Review on Northern Area Plan - the leading case on the SEA directive in the UK - strategic environmental assessment Judicial Review on Northern Area Plan in Northern Ireland; this has gone to the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal and is not going to the ECJ, together with the related judicial review case regarding the asserted non-feasibility of SEA in that matter.
  
• Giants Causeway - a World Heritage Site and incorporating the development of a controversial new visitors centre.
  
• Thames Water Upper Thames Water Resource Plan. Raising important and complex issues of water resources planning, supply and demand for water in London Region, demand management and supply side measures.
  
• Dilly Lane and Church Crookham challenge on approach to appropriate assessment. Which will become the leading case on scope of the requirements for appropriate assessment under the Habitats Directive and Regulations. Which Taylor Wimpey and other parties won in the High Court (Sullivan J.).
  
• Thames Water Desalination Development at Beckton - desalination development at Beckton and including highly topic issue the Mayor's policy for renewable energy; to be heard in the High Court

LITIGATION

• Appeared in the High Court for RWE npower in its application for an order to quash the decision of the First Secretary of State to include Fawley Power Station in the New Forest National Park
  
• Appeared for Miller Argent (South Wales) defending the decision of the Welsh Assembly to grant permission for land reclamation on a large site at Merthyr Tydfil.
  
• The Government's development scheme and vesting order for Victoria Square in Belfast, which he successfully promoted and has subsequently defended in the High Court of Northern Ireland.

TRANSPORT AND WORKS ORDERS

Led the team of counsel acting for Network Rail promoting the revised proposals for the Thameslink railway system

Qualifications and Appointments

• QC - 1996
  
• Recorder - 2001
  
• Call (Northern Ireland) - 2002
  
• Bencher of Gray's Inn - 2003
  
• Founder member and former committee member of the Planning and Environment Bar Association
  
• Member of the committee of the Oxford Joint Planning Law Conference
  
• Governor of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute