October 2nd, 2019
ELF Community Event - Regional Airport Expansion and how communities can respond – 28th November 2019 at 39 Essex, London
ELF is delighted to be partnering with Stephen Tromans QC and Richard Wald of 39 Essex Chambers to deliver a public community event looking at assisting those communities facing regional airport expansion. With national policy in the form of the Airport’s National Policy Statement https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/airports-national-policy-statement driving the expansion of our regional airports, how do effected communities respond? With emissions from tourist air travel set to increase exponentially, what can we do to limit these impacts?
Come and listen to those who have experienced these threats and to the professionals who have assisted those communities. Come and share ways of working with other groups.
Programme
2.00 – 2.05 Chair Richard Wald
Introduction to the Event and our Speakers
2.05 – 2.35 John Stewart, HACAN (Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise)
When and how to resort to the law in opposing airport expansion
2.35 – 3.05 Rajesh Alagh, Borough Solicitor
London Borough of Hillingdon
Challenging Major Infrastructure: Lessons learned from a Decade at the Eye of the Storm
3.05 – 3.35 pm Stephen Tromans QC
Aviation Expansion and Air Quality Obligations – A Marriage of Inconvenience?
3.35 – 4.20 Airport Expansion and Climate Change
Will Rundle, Friends of the Earth
Tim Johnsonand Deborah Lovatt, Director and Community Outreach Manager (respectively) at the Aviation Environment Federation
4.20 – 4.45 TEA/COFFEE BREAK
4.45 – 5.10 Brian Ross, Deputy Chairman of Stop Stansted Expansion
Dealing with Aviation Planning Applications
5.10 – 5.45 Jason and Samara Jones-Hall
Workshop on Manston Airport Development Consent Order Examination – Do’s and Don’ts
5.45 – 6.00 Q&A and Panel Session
(to include Nigel Pleming QC,Leading Counsel for the Claimants in 3 JR challenges to LHR expansion)
From 6pm – Drinks Reception
The event will take place at 39 Essex Chambers, Chancery Lane, London from 2pm followed by a drinks reception at 6pm. https://www.39essex.com/contact-us/how-to-find-us/. For more information on the event please email [email protected].
There will be a charge of £10.00 for attendance at this event. This charge covers the costs to ELF of administration, materials and time for organising the event. ELF is a small charity with limited resources and no specific funds for putting on community events. Tickets can be purchased via Eventbrite.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/elf-public-community-event-on-regional-airport-expansion-tickets-78397492009
Biogs
Richard Wald (Chair)
Richard was called to the bar in 1997. He specializes, and is ranked by the main directories, in Planning, Environmental, Energy, Administrative (including Local Government) law. He was appointed to the Attorney General’s B-Panel of Counsel to the Crown in 2009 and an Assistant Boundary Commissioner in 2016. In 2017 he was nominated by Chambers & Partners to be Environment and Planning Junior of the Year. He has acted in a number of judicial review challenges to proposals for airport expansion including at Heathrow, Farnborough and most recently Stansted.
John Stewart
John Stewart has been involved in transport and noise campaigning for over 35 years. Since 2000 he has chaired HACAN, the organisation which gives a voice to residents under the Heathrow flight paths. In 2001 HACAN took the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights over night flights at Heathrow. It was also part of the 2009 legal challenge to a third runway at Heathrow. For over a decade John chaired AirportWatch, the network of UK airport community campaigns. He is also vice chair of UECNA, the Europe-wide body which represents airport communities. He is the author of Why Noise Matters, published by Earthscan in 2011.
Rajesh Alagh
Rajesh is the Borough Solicitor at the London Borough of Hillingdon, a position which he has occupied for 20 years. He is a specialist in local government law, having worked in the public sector for 32 years. During his time at Hillingdon, Rajesh has been involved in a number of high profile legal matters such as challenging the Government’s plans to implement major infrastructure projects such as HS2 and Heathrow expansion. In addition to the legal challenges which have been brought in the High Court and the Appellate Courts, Rajesh was also extensively involved in the petitioning process, which took place before the House of Commons and House of Lords Select Committees, in relation to HS2 and he appeared as the Council’s advocate in both Houses.
Stephen Tromans QC
Stephen is recognised as a leading practitioner in environmental, energy and planning law. He has been involved in some of the leading cases in matters such as environmental impact assessment, habitats, nuisance, and waste, and in key projects such as proposals for new nuclear power stations, ports and transport infrastructure. He has an extremely wide ranging practice, acting for companies, government agencies, local authorities, and NGOs. His work spans all aspects of environmental law and its interface with energy, planning and commercial law. He is a trained arbitrator and mediator and has acted as an expert witness on UK law in proceedings in other jurisdictions. He has a particular expertise in nuclear law. As well as being involved in some of the leading cases and projects in that field, he is a Board Member of INLA UK and a member of the government’s Committee on Radioactive Waste Management.
Will Rundle
Will is Head of Legal at Friends of the Earth (Eng.,Wales,N.I) a leading environmental campaigning charity in the UK focused on socially just and inclusive solutions to the major environmental challenges we face. Will leads a cross cutting legal-campaign team that works through all Friends of the Earth campaigns: Climate, Trees, Plastics, Fracking, civil society and environmental rights, Brexit.
Will previously led the legal team at another environmental NGO called Fish Legal, which uses public law and the private law rights of its members to protect fish and the water environment, win compensation to restore environmental damage, and bring people and the environment together through an appreciation of being outdoors and fishing.
Tim Johnson
Director
Tim is the Director of the UK-based Aviation Environment Federation (AEF), an NGO dedicated to tackling aviation’s environmental impacts. He has nearly thirty years expertise in the aviation and environmental field. He is a lead representative for the environmental NGOs at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) where he co-led the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection’s (CAEP) task group to develop the “offset eligibility criteria” for use in the global market-based measure CORSIA. He is a member of the Department for Transport’s Airspace Strategy Board (ASB) and Noise and Airspace Engagement Group (ANEG), UK Sustainable Aviation’s Advisory Panel and ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation Advisory Board.
Deborah Lovatt
Community Outreach Manager
Deborah joined AEF in 2016 to strengthen its relationship with existing members and to seek the views of communities outside its membership who are affected by aviation. Formerly an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, Deborah has a PhD and a Graduate Diploma in Law. She has extensive experience of working for advice-giving charities, and a strong interest in environmental campaigning and in engaging with the planning system, both as a member of the public, and for environmental charities.
Brian Ross
Brian Ross has a B Com (Hons) degree from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA with Distinction from City University, London. He is an alumnus of Stanford University Business School and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has 25 years’ experience with a major UK plc in operational and corporate finance roles, interrupted by two and a half years in the Prime Minister’s Office advising on efficiency matters within Government. Brian then went on to establish his own consulting business, initially advising on cross-border mergers and acquisitions before being given assignments relating to airport economic and regulatory matters on behalf of clients in the financial services sector. He has been with Stop Stansted Expansion since it was founded in 2002, joining the Executive Committee in 2004 and becoming Deputy Chairman in 2015.
Jason and Samara Jones-Hall
As the UK’s first ever airport to go through the Development Consent Order (DCO) process, the Manston Airport DCO examination offers insight into what to expect for other airports about to go through this process.
Having been involved at every stage, Jason and Samara Jones-Hall have been prominent figures in the campaign against the Manston development, submitting more than 130 detailed documents as evidence both individually and through their own organisation, Five10Twelve. These included independent noise contours commissioned by Five10Twelve through the CAA, data analysis of public representations and highly-evidenced submissions covering everything from environmental issues to finance, health, public safety, due diligence, freight market analysis, government policy and legal frameworks.
As the DCO process is very deadline-driven and labour intensive, Jason and Samara can now reflect on their experiences throughout the recently-concluded examination and share tips, insights, dos and don’ts with other campaigners.
Nigel Pleming QC
Nigel specialises in public law, including environment and planning law. He has advised governments, private clients and NGOs for many years, in England and Wales and abroad on environment issues, and, occasionally, on planning matters. He has appeared as counsel in numerous environment and planning cases, at all levels. He was named as ‘Planning and Environment Silk of the Year’ in the 2010 Chambers Bar Awards, and consistently highly ranked in Environment in The Legal 500 and Chambers UK.
