Planning Inspectorate Newsletter - Issue 4
Simon Barnes
I recently spent a day at the Planning Inspectorate for the purpose of learning more about planning law and how the planning system operates in practice. This article is an account of my day and what I learnt from it.
Firstly some background about myself. I am a solicitor and have been qualified for three years. My background is in licensing and criminal law but I trained at a large commercial firm so I have always been aware of planning and how it affects other areas of the law such as property transactions and licensing. It has always been an area that interested me because it is technical in nature but also very practical and, unlike more abstract areas of the law, it has a noticeable impact on our everyday environment. As I am based in Bath it therefore made sense to see if I could learn more about the subject by spending a day at the Inspectorate.
My morning started off with a talk from David Smith who I learnt was in charge of training Inspectors. David is also a very experienced Inspector himself and he talked me through the planning appeals system which gave me a good overview of how the system works and what responsibilities the Inspectorate has. David then gave me two exercises to complete which are usually given to Inspectors when they are training. For me as a legal professional this was extremely useful because however much one reads about an area of law it is never the same as actually applying that knowledge in practice. I had not really done any planning work at that time and it was heartening to find out that I knew more than I thought I did and, although my suggested answers were far from perfect, I did at least feel that I was on the right track! After I had finished the exercises David then spent some time going through the answers with me and talking through the issues. Again this was invaluable experience because it gave me an insight into how an Inspector would approach a case in practice which was particularly important for me as I hope to be dealing with planning inquiries in the future.
After lunch I then spent some time talking with Simon Farmer in the Policy Unit. This was a good counterpoint to my morning with David because besides dealing with queries from Inspectors, Simon also has to implement government policy. In particular we discussed the difficulties in trying to implement government targets in relation to building new homes in the South East and the growing lack of available space there. As a lawyer I am not often involved in looking at policy so it was interesting to look at things from that perspective.
I then spent some time with Ashley Gray in the Consumer Complaints Unit. The thing that struck me about the work of Ashley’s unit was the attention to detail that the Inspectorate gives to complaints made about Inspectors. I was particularly surprised to learn that a large amount of complaints made are actually for seemingly minor errors such as spelling mistake in letters.
Finally I had a useful talk with David Musgrave in the High Court section. Again as a lawyer it was interesting to see how High Court cases involving the Inspectorate are dealt with. I was interested to note that even successful High Court challenges often simply result in the case being remitted back for a fresh hearing.
To sum up, I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the Planning Inspectorate. I feel that I had a good overview of how the organisation worked and it was particularly useful to have some practical exercises to do. Once again thank you to all the people who arranged the day and to those who gave up their time to speak to me. I am currently embarking on a distance learning course in planning law so that should give a good indication of how I enjoyed the day!
Simon Barnes
