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Expert comment on waste planning developments affecting local authority planners, planning consultants, lawyers and developers.

Latest Comment

Karen Jones, partner, Blandy & Blandy

The legal powers local authorities can use to tackle fly-tipping

Local authorities have various enforcement actions available to them in order to respond to fly-tipping in their areas, ranging from the seizure of vehicles...

Karen Jones, partner, Blandy & Blandy

Court sets high bar for challenging officer's advice on waste planning applications

The courts have recently considered whether a county planning authority, when determining an application for permission to extract pulverised fuel ash...

Karen Jones

Director fails to overturn disqualification for deliberate disregard of waste storage limits

A court had not improperly 'pierced the company veil' when it imposed a suspended prison sentence and disqualification on a company director who had allowed...

Simon Tilling

Why company directors can be personally held to account for environmental harm

The separate legal status of one company director's waste firm was not enough to prevent him being personally punished in the Court of Appeal for his business'...

Latest Comment

Karen Jones, partner, Blandy & Blandy

From a business-costing 'blunder' to 'flagrant disregard' for the law, waste crime nets large fines for companies

Since May this year the Environment Agency has reported three prosecutions in respect of waste offences that led to contaminated waste shipments, toxic...

Karen Jones

What a report by the UK's spending watchdog says about the growing gaps in waste crime enforcement

A report by the National Audit Office in response to a 2021 waste crime survey highlights a system that is struggling to deter illegal activity across...

Karen Jones

Ruling shows effective mitigation cannot simply be assumed in planning decisions

How comprehensive must a remediation scheme be when redeveloping contaminated land was considered by the High Court in a case challenging a decision to...

Ruth Amundson, editor, Waste Planning

The planning system is key to the levelling up agenda

The government's levelling up white paper was published on 2 February. The programme aims to boost productivity and living standards, improve public services,...