Nicola Allan

Specialisms:

• Town & Country Planning
• Agricultural Law
• Chancery Law
• Administrative and Public Law

Areas of Work:

Planning Appeals

• s.78 Appeal against planning decisions
• s.77 Secretary of State recovered jurisdiction 
• s.97 Revocation & Modification orders 
• s.174 Appeal against Enforcement notices
• s.215 Proper maintenance of land notices

Local Development Framework Examinations

• Core Strategies and other Development Plan Documents

Other Areas

• s.106 drafting legal agreements
• Injunctions and interim remedies 
• s.210 Injunction for breach of Tree Preservation Order
• Breach of advertisement regulations – prosecute and defend
• Breach of condition on planning permissions – prosecute and defend

Chancery

• Lands Tribunal matters
• Property disputes including boundaries, easements and restrictive covenants

Village Greens

• Registration, upgrading and modification of public rights

Nicola has worked as a Chartered Town Planner for 12 years in local government and the private sector before being called to the Bar in 1999. She has an extensive practice in Town & Country Planning, compulsory purchase and related local government and administrative law, acting in public inquiries and the courts.

Nicola has advised and appears for a wide range of Local Authorities, developers and private clients on various projects including house building, mixed use regeneration, renewables, conservation and listed buildings.  She also advises all parties in criminal cases arising from planning breaches.

Nicola specialises in rights of way, village greens and commons law; acting for all parties at highway inquiries and in applications to modify definitive maps, applications to register village greens and applications to the relevant Minister under s.194 of the Law of Property Act 1925.

Cases:

Martin v. Childs [2002] EWCA Civ. 283(Easement)

Persimmon Homes v Blyth Valley BC [2008] EWCA Civ. 861

Nicola has recently acted on behalf of a private client, securing planning permission from the Secretary of State for a Biomass power station in East Yorkshire. The £30m scheme will generate 12 Mw energy from the burning of straw, supplying electricity into the National Grid to power the equivalent of 20,000 homes.  She is also advising three private sector clients on “grand design” zero carbon country houses and an eco holiday village in Northumberland.

Nicola has extensive experience of promoting Core Strategies and other DPDs through the Examination process under the new system.
 
Nicola has advised a local authority on judicial review of a major retail scheme on the north east and represented North Yorkshire County Council at the A1 D2B public inquiry into the upgrading of the A1 to motorway in North Yorkshire. 

Appointments:

Attorney General's Regional Panel of Counsel.

Memberships:

• Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute
• Chartered Town Planner
• United Kingdom Environmental Law Association
• Planning and Environmental Bar Association
• Agricultural Law Association 

Lectures & Seminars:

Nicola regularly talks at seminars to private clients and local authorities on planning issues including renewable energy.  She also delivers bespoke in-house training for local authority officers.

Nicola is a Bar Council accredited lecturer and has lectured in planning practice at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and Durham University and to the Local Government Association on village greens and commons and Freedom of Information.

Education:

• BA (Hons) Town & Country Planning – University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
• BVC – University of Northumbria.

Additional Information:

Prior to becoming a barrister, Nicola worked in local government, as a team manager in a multi disciplinary consultancy and subsequently ran her own planning consultancy.