No5 Barristers' Chambers

Planning and Environment

Barristers

Jessica Allen is a specialist environmental lawyer who welcomes instructions in all areas of environmental law, including planning, property, public law, environmental torts, and EU/international law. Before coming to the Bar, Jessica held legal and policy roles at WWF, the Environmental Law Foundation, and ClientEarth.

Jessica regularly acts for and advises individuals, community groups, NGOs, landowners, developers, and local and central government in various fora and on a range of environmental law matters including judicial review challenges, planning appeals, restocking notice appeals, abatement notice appeals, and environmental assessments (HRA/EIA). She has appeared in senior courts up to the Court of Appeal.

Recent instructions include:

-          R (on the application of Smar Holdings Ltd) v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2025] EWCA Civ 1041: Acting for the respondent in an appeal against a successful judicial review of the Secretary of State’s decision to uphold a restocking notice which raised issues including whether the prospect of a planning permission or an emerging development plan allocation was capable of being a material consideration (led by Hugh Richards);

-          Acting for the claimant in a judicial review of the Environment Agency’s (EA) decision to revise the risk category of and enforcement response to non-compliance with an environmental permit in circumstances where the EA had not provided lawful reasons or taken into account a further breach and acted irrationally and inconsistently with its own enforcement policy (ongoing);

-          Acting for the claimant conservation charity in a judicial review of the Marine Management Organisation’s (MMO) decision to grant a licence for the disposal of dredged materials in Marine Conservation Zone (MCZs) in circumstances where the MMO had not considered whether the potential adverse impacts on the MCZs could be avoided, minimised or otherwise mitigated (consented);

-          Acting for the respondent council in an appeal against its refusal to renew a licence for the boarding of cats and dogs on grounds including that the decision notice was invalid or insufficiently reasoned and the council’s officer had given an enforceable assurance that the licence would be granted (discontinued);

-          Acting for the respondent council in an appeal against an abatement notice relating to a noise nuisance arising from industrial premises on grounds including that there was no nuisance and the notice was defective;

-          East Midlands Gateway Phase 2 DCO and East Midlands Gateway Phase 1 MCO: Acting for the host local planning authority in relation to the examination of an application for development consent for commercial and business development and highway works within the East Midlands Freeport and an application for a material change to an implemented development consent order for a rail freight interchange;

-          APP/6004299 Land off St Mary’s Road, Hayling Island: Acting for a Rule 6 party at an inquiry into a 300-home residential scheme on greenfield land raising flooding, highways and ecology/HRA issues;

-          APP/6004237 Manor Field, OS 126 Grange Lane: Acting for the appellant developer at a hearing for the erection of nine bungalows in a conservation area raising heritage and open space issues; and

-          APP/D3505/W/25/3370515 Land at Grove Farm and Land East of the Railway Line, Bentley: Acting for the appellant developer at an inquiry into a 40 MW solar farm and substation scheme in a conservation area raising issues relating to the conservation area and associated designated and non-designated heritage assets, landscape, amenity and Best and Most Versatile Agricultural Land (led by Thea Osmund-Smith).

English, French

UKELA (UK Environmental Law Association)

PEBA (Planning and Environmental Bar Association)

NIPA (National Infrastructure Planning Association)

ALBA (Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association)

Gray’s Inn

Bachelor of Civil Law – Distinction (University of Oxford, 2018) BA (Hons) Law with French and French Law – First Class (University of Nottingham, 2017) Diplôme d’Études du Droit de l’Union Européenne (Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, 2016)

Jessica was raised in a single-parent household and attended local state comprehensive schools in the North-West of England. She is the first in her family to be called to the Bar. Jessica is committed to access to justice and has provided pro bono advice on several claims for judicial review on an urgent and non-urgent basis. She is happy to accept instructions pro bono in appropriate cases. In 2024, Jessica was nominated as Junior Pro Bono Barrister of the Year.

In her free time, Jessica enjoys rock climbing, hiking, and playing the piano.