No5 Barristers' Chambers

Planning and environmental group; public law.

Satnam Choongh is a highly regarded, leading planning and environmental law specialist, ranked Tier 1 by the Legal 500.

Satnam’s experience of appearing at public inquiries and in the High Court and Court of Appeal stretches over 30 years, and during that period he has dealt with every aspect of planning and environmental law and policy, including that related to proposals for retail and residential development, mineral working, waste management and disposal, airport development and expansion, energy (including energy from waste, wind and nuclear), and highways and transportation (including motorway and roadside service areas). His expertise extends to enforcement, including both planning and environmental enforcement (statutory nuisance, air, land and water pollution).

Satnam has experience of drafting and advising on legal instruments relating to the development of land, including s.106 and promotion agreements.

Satnam’s list of clients include Persimmon Homes, Extra MSAs, KFC, ASDA, Sainsbury, Gallagher Developments, Richborough Estates, the Rosconn Group, St. Modwen Developments, Halsbury Homes and Gladman Developments.

Satnam has a D.Phil from Trinity College Oxford, and has held Professorial posts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Birmingham and New York University (Abu Dhabi). He has published several articles on planning and environmental topics.

Satnam regularly promotes large residential schemes both at inquiry and through local plans. . His local plan appearances include promoting (new settlements in Sussex, Chelmsford and Norfolk), and he has recently appeared at the Newcastle-under-Lyme, Telford and Coventry plan examinations. His inquiry experience extends to a host of large scale, complex and varied planning cases, including promoting a 3.5 million square feet rail-freight interchange in the Green Belt; successfully securing planning permission for a waste incinerator; opposing an application for a 58 hectare resource recovery park and 95MW RDF Incinerator under the Electricity Act; opposing the expansion of Coventry Airport; promoting an alternative to the Govt.’s plans for the expansion of Heathrow Airport via a challenge to the National Planning Statement on Aviation; successfully securing planning permission for motorway services areas on the M42 and M62; opposing open cast coal-mining in Derbyshire and promoting it in Worcestershire; successfully opposing out of centre retail development in Bath and Congleton and successfully securing such permission in Bridgnorth; supporting Windfarms in Warwickshire; representing the HSE in an inquiry into de-commissioning a nuclear power station in the Snowdonia National Park and advising South Somerset planning authorities on Hinckley nuclear power station.

Notable cases

R (on the application of Heathrow Hub Ltd) v Secretary of State for Transport [2019] WHC 1070 (Admin) and [2020]

EWCA Civ 213-27

(role of legitimate expectation in designating national planning policy statement; parliamentary privilege)

R (on the application of Finnegan) v Southampton City Council [2020] EWHC 286 (Admin)

(extent of LPA’s powers to decline to determine a planning application under s.70C TCPA 1990)

South Gloucestershire Council v Burge and Burge [2017] EWCA 1313

(extent of compensatory regime for losses arising from refusal of TPO consent)

East Staffs BC v SSCLG and Barwood Strategic Land Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ 893

(ambit of the NPPF presumption in favour of sustainable development)

Woodfield v JJ Gallagher Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 1007

(irrationality in adoption of local plan and extent of court’s powers to order adoption of a particular policy)

IMI Properties v Lichfield DC [2015] EWHC 2077 (Admin)

(and see [2014] EWHC 240 (Admin)) (correct procedure for challenging development plans, releasing GB through the plan process)

Mackman v SoSE [2015] EWCA Civ 716 (EIA and screening opinions)

Bloor Homes v SoSCLG [2014] EWHC 754 (Admin)

(correct approach to 5 year housing land supply, meaning of plans being silent or absent etc)

Called to the Bar 1994; Hardwick Scholar and recipient of Thomas Moore Bursary (Lincoln’s Inn); previously law lecturer (Warwick University) and in-house planning advocate at Eversheds. Helped set up a new law school and taught as Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and established the Centre for Professional Legal Education and Research at the University of Birmingham where he worked as Chair Professor.

Planning and Environmental Bar Association.

Warwick University (LLB Hons First Class); Trinity College, Oxford (DPhil).