Call date: 1977

Memberships:
United Kingdom Environmental Law Association; Environmental Law Foundation Committee Member of the Planning and Environment Bar Association and Chair of its Membership Sub-Committee;

Positions:
Door Tenant

Fellow:
Society of Antiquaries

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Door Tenants: John Pugh-Smith

CALL: 1977

Education

Trinity School of John Whitgift, Croydon.
Oxford University (Regents Park College).

Degrees and Academic Awards

MA Jurisprudence.
Uthwatt Scholarship (Gray’s Inn).
Holker Award (Gray’s Inn).

Career

Tenant at 2 Kings Bench Walk, 1979-84.

Tenant at 2 Mitre Court Buildings 1984-91 (move of accommodation to)

1 Serjeants Inn 1991 – 2001 (move of accommodation to )
Eldon Chambers 2001-2002

Tenant at 39 Essex Street 2002 – to date.

Committee member of the Planning & Environment Bar Association ("PEBA").

Member of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association ("UKELA") and the Environmental Law Foundation ("ELF").

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in recognition of his expertise in and services to archaeology and the law in December 2001.

Experience / Practice Areas / Important Cases

Administrative: Central and Local Government Law
Environmental and Planning.

John took pupillages in construction law and landlord & tenant before joining, in 1979, a large Western Circuit set of Chambers at 2 Kings Bench Walk, where he undertook mainly common law work. In 1984 he joined 2 Mitre Court Buildings under the headship of the late Sir Frank Layfield QC. The set subsequently moved, then under the headship of Lionel Read QC, to 1 Serjeants Inn in 1991 and to its subsequent address at Eldon Chambers in 2001. He moved to 39 Essex Street in April 2002 in order to provide enhanced planning and environmental expertise within the renowned public law group together with four other colleagues from Eldon Chambers.

John now practises mainly in the field of town & country planning but also undertakes related environmental, parliamentary and local government work for both the private and public sectors. Recent and current clients include Acquest Developments, Barratt Homes, Bellway Homes, Bloor Homes, Brett Group (Minerals and Waste), CITB, CPI Mortars, East Dorset District Council, English Courtyard, Fairclough Homes, Fairfield Partnership, Gloucester City Council, Hampshire Police Authority, Hopkins Homes, Lafarge, Lattice Property Holdings (formerly British Gas), Lidl Foodstores, London City Airport, London Taxis International, Mid-Essex Gravel, Moto Hospitality (formerly Granada), Nicholas King Homes, Norwich City Council, Open University, Paragon Healthcare, Peat Producers Association, Pegasus Retirement Homes, Pelham Homes, Prowting Projects (now Westbury Homes), Railtrack, RLW Estates, Sevenoaks District Council, St John’s College Cambridge, Sunrise Senior Living and Wimpey Homes.

He travels extensively throughout England. Current inquiry work has also taken him to South Wales.

Recent cases include:

• Granada Hospitality Ltd v SSETR and Hounslow LBC [2001] PLCR 81 –green belt – MSA Travelodge extensions - very special circumstances.
• R v South Norfolk Council, ex parte Pelham Homes Limited [2001] PLCR 125 – legitimate expectation – planning application by council during local plan process – unreasonableness.
• Christchurch Borough Council v SSETR and Billington [2001] JPL 1265 – green belt – residential caravan – personal circumstances.
• Friends Provident Life Office v SSETR and Norwich City Council [2002] 1 WLR 1450 – retail impact of rival new development -article 6 of the Human Rights Act – compatibility of local authority planning powers – need for call-in by SSETR.
• British Telecommunications plc v Gloucester City Council [2002] JPL 993 – planning permission underpinning CPO scheme – need for environmental statement –article 6
  of the HRA - compatability of CPO process.
• Laing Homes Ltd v First Secretary of State and Pelham Homes Ltd [2003] JPL 559 – PPG3 para. 31 urban extension sites – alternative as material consideration – need to show
  conspicuously less drawbacks.

Public inquiry appearances, in respect of which he spends the greatest part of his time, have included:

• Residential development for Acquest Developments (Fisheries Estate, Windsor & Maidenhead), Bloor Homes (Camberley), English Courtyard (Elton Estate, Huntingdonshire), Fairclough Homes (Croydon), Fairfield Partnership (Forest Heath), Nicholas King Homes (Beaconsfield, Byfleet, Maidenhead, Windsor), Pelham (Fareham, Medway and South Norfolk), Pegasus Retirement Homes (Banstead, Berkhamsted), Prowting/Westbury (Hastings call-in, Tewksbury LP), RLW Estates (Cambridgeshire Structure Plan EIP advisory role), Sunrise Senior Living (Banstead, Esher) and Wimpey (Girton, South Cambridgeshire call-in).
• Retail/leisure development for Gloucester City Council (Docks, Cattle Market redevelopments), Lattice Property Holdings (Plymouth foodstore appeal), Lidl (Blackwater, Hart, foodstore), McDonalds (Maesteg), Moto (Pease Pottage Travelodge, Mid-Sussex) and Norwich City Council (Combined Burger King & Pizza Hut appeal).
• Low to Medium Secure Mental Health Unit (Paragon Healthcare; Barnsley).
• Norwich City Local Plan (for the Council).
• Enforcement of an agricultural occupancy condition for Sevenoaks District Council (8 day inquiry).
• Transport and Works Act inquiry appearances into DLR Extension for London City Airport.
• Compulsory Purchase Orders for the Blackfriars re-development of Gloucester City Centre for the promoting authority.
• Minerals Local Plan appearances for Somerset Peat Producers Association and members; Enforcement and Discontinuance Inquiries (North Lincs).

Chambers & Partners' Directory of the Legal Profession continues to place him amongst the leading junior barristers in environmental law, where he has been described as giving a "high quality of advice" to solicitors (2003-4) and "really gets into the subject without losing the audience" (2004-5). John has also been described in The Lawyer and Planning magazine, as a "leading senior junior" in planning law.

John, for a number of years, has been joint advisory editor to Planning, Property & Compensation Reports ("P&CR"). Until it ceased at the end of 2002, he was also an advisory editor for Planning Law Case Reports ("PLCR"). He is a regular contributor to the Journal of Planning & Environment Law and an occasional contributor to the Landscape Design Journal.

His other publications, for Sweet & Maxwell, include: Neighbours & the Law (Author 1st Ed. 1988, Co-Author 2nd Ed. 1993; General Editor 3rd Ed. 2001); Co-author (with Dr John Samuels)
of Archaeology in Law (1996); acting as a joint indexer for Woodfall on Landlord & Tenant (1978 to 1988) and a case editor of Current Law (1979 to 1989). He has also acted as a General
Editor (and chapter author on nature conservation and environmental appeals), as part of a team from his former Chambers, of Environmental Law (Oxford University Press) (2000).

John is a committee member of the Planning & Environment Bar Association ("PEBA") and chairs its Membership Sub-Committee. He also holds membership of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association ("UKELA") and the Environmental Law Foundation ("ELF").

John is a regular speaker at lectures and seminars on both planning and environment law and practice including Sweet & Maxwell’s Annual Planning Conference.

He was made a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in recognition of his expertise in and services to archaeology and the law in December 2001.

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