Gwion Lewis KC

Planning

Gwion advises on all aspects of planning law and he appears regularly in inquiries, in hearings and in court in this area. The main legal directories have recommended Gwion as a leading barrister in planning law for several years: “A go-to barrister for planning disputes”; “A formidable advocate”; “An intellectual star”; “Ferocious in court and on paper” (Chambers and Partners); “Very smart and excellent on his feet”; “Very user-friendly and easy to work with” (Legal 500). Gwion has acted for clients in many of the leading planning cases of the last 20 years, including the long-running Hillside Parks litigation that reached the Supreme Court in 2022, where he acted for the successful party.

Gwion has substantial experience of acting for leading housebuilders (Persimmon; William Davis; Bloor; Jelson; Barwood); the retail sector (Homebase; Co-operative Group; Tesco; Toni & Guy); the residential care sector (KYN; Elysian Residences); the entertainment sector (Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group; Pinewood Studios) and the hospitality sector (Mayfair’s Dorchester Hotel). He also has considerable experience of infrastructure schemes, advising developers, local authorities and regulators on energy schemes and port-related development across England and Wales.

Highlights of Gwion’s recent and ongoing planning work are set out here in two sections: (1) planning inquiries, examinations and hearings; and (2) planning litigation in the courts.

(1) Planning inquiries, examinations and hearings

Housing

• Heol-y-Cefn, Garreglwyd, Carmarthenshire (2021-22) – acted for Persimmon Homes, obtaining planning permission on appeal for 100 homes

• Eastmead Industrial Estate, Lavant, West Sussex (2021) – acted for Oakford Homes Ltd, obtaining planning permission on appeal for 58 dwellings and 420sqm of B1 floorspace (main issue: whether affordable housing offer was acceptable in viability terms)

• Melton Road, Burton on the Wolds, Leicestershire (2021) – acted for William Davis Ltd, obtaining planning permission on appeal for 70 dwellings

• 543 Commercial Road, London (2020) – obtained planning permission on appeal for 21 apartments (main issue: affordable housing)

Residential-led mixed use schemes

• 480-510 Larkshall Road, Highams Park, Waltham Forest, London (2022-23): obtained planning permission on appeal for a residential-led mixed use scheme comprising 68 residential units, flexible commercial spaces and a new train station entrance to regenerate the district centre of Highams Park

• Heath Clark North, Waddon, Croydon (2022) – obtained planning permission on appeal for 140 residential units and a community hub

Residential care homes

• Hotel Felix, Cambridge (2022-23) – successfully acted for KYN, obtaining planning permission on appeal for a dementia care home on the site of a non-designated heritage asset

Energy

• Kemberton Solar Farm (2024)– obtained planning permission on appeal for a 22MW solar farm on agricultural land east of Telford in the Green Belt

Infrastructure

• Gatwick Airport Northern Runway (2024) – acted for and advised Mid Sussex District Council throughout the development consent order ("DCO") hearings
• Awel y Môr offshore wind farm, off north Wales coast (2022-23) – acted for Natural Resources Wales at the DCO hearings

• Morlais tidal energy project, Anglesey (2020-21) – acted for Natural Resources Wales at the examination hearings relating to the Transport and Works Act order and advised on all required permits

• Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station, Anglesey (2018-19) – acted for Natural Resources Wales at the DCO hearings and advised on all environmental permits

• Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay (2015) – acted for Natural Resources Wales at the DCO hearings for the world’s first man-made, energy-generating tidal lagoon

Motorway services

• Vale of York, Kirby Hill, Harrogate (2020-21) –obtained planning permission on appeal for a new motorway services area between junctions 48 and 49 of the A1(M) on behalf of Applegreen plc (majority owner of Welcome Break) (with Rhodri Price Lewis KC)

Tall buildings

• Westferry Printworks, Isle of Dogs (2019-2021) – acted for Tower Hamlets Council in two inquiries, resisting a proposal for a mixed-use scheme including over 1,500 residential units (with Sasha White KC) (see related court litigation below).

Retail

• Homebase store, Saffron Walden (2020) – successfully acted for Homebase resisting an appeal seeking planning permission to change the use of the site from retail to a care home use

Equestrian development

• Willow Tree Riding Establishment (2021-22) – acted for Lewisham Council at a public inquiry, successfully resisting an appeal seeking planning permission for new equestrian facilities in an area of Metropolitan Open Land

Plan-making

• Hounslow Local Plan Review– acting for Hounslow Council at a series of public hearings examining development plan documents that will update the Local Plan

• Lambeth Local Plan 2021 – acted for Park Plaza Hotels at the public examination of the Local Plan, successfully resisting policies that would have restricted new hotels in the Waterloo area

• Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016 – acted for the Isle of Man Government’s Department of Infrastructure in a public examination of a plan to allow over 5,000 new homes to be built on the island in the period 2011-2026.

(2) Planning litigation in the courts

Gwion regularly appears in court in planning-related matters. Recent and current highlights include:

Multiple/inconsistent planning permissions

• Hillside Parks Ltd v Snowdonia National Park Authority [2022] UKSC 30 – acted successfully for the National Park in all courts, including the Supreme Court, defeating a claim seeking to establish that a planning permission granted for housing in 1967 could still be lawfully completed.

• Gwion advises regularly on the implications of the Hillside Parks judgment for other development schemes

National Planning Policy Framework for England

• East Staffordshire BC v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2017] EWCA Civ 893; [2017] PTSR 386 – acted for the Secretary of State in this leading authority on the correct approach to the presumption in favour of sustainable development.

• Braintree DC v SSCLG [2017] EWHC 2743 (Admin) – successfully defended an inspector’s decision on the meaning of “isolated homes” in the NPPF.

• Forest of Dean DC v SSCLG [2016] EWHC 421 (Admin) – leading authority on the interplay between the presumption in favour of sustainable development and heritage policy.

Planning Policy Wales

• Waterstone Estates v Welsh Ministers [2018] EWCA Civ 1571 – whether national planning policy in Wales imposes a discrete gateway test of ‘need’ for retail development.

Plan-making

• William Davis Ltd and others v Charnwood BC [2017] EWHC 3006 (Admin); [2018] JPL 549 – successfully acted for a consortium of housing developers challenging the lawfulness of adopting, as a supplementary planning document, a document establishing a presumption in favour of a particular housing mix.

Tall buildings

• R (Tower Hamlets Council) v SSHCLG (CO/725/2020) – successfully acted for the Council in obtaining a quashing of the Secretary of State’s decision to grant planning permission for the Westferry Printworks redevelopment (see above) on the ground of apparent bias (with Sasha White KC).

• Starbones Ltd v SSHCLG [2020] EWHC 256 (Admin) – successfully resisted a challenge to the Secretary of State’s decision to refuse planning permission for a tall, mixed use tower – the “Chiswick Curve” – in west London.

Open space

• Renew Land Developments Ltd v Welsh Ministers [2020] EWCA Civ 143 – acted successfully for the Welsh Ministers in their appeal seeking reinstatement of an inspector’s decision refusing planning permission for housing due to a loss of open space.

Basement development

• Eatherley v Camden LBC [2016] EWHC 3108 – successfully acted for the claimant, challenging a certificate of lawful development granted for a basement extension in London.

Enforcement

• Gerston Point, West Alvington, Kingsbridge (2021-22) – acted for South Hams District Council resisting an appeal against an enforcement notice issued by the Council relating to domestic recreational uses in an area of AONB

• Chichester District Council v Sullivan and others [2020] EWHC 2154 (QB) – obtained a permanent injunction for the Council requiring the removal of mobile homes and caravans from a sensitive AONB location

Environment

Gwion advises on all aspects of environmental law and he has a diverse range of clients spanning the private, public and third sectors.

The main legal directories have recommended Gwion as a leading barrister in environmental law for several years: “A truly brilliant advocate who cuts to the chase and has extreme knowledge of environmental law”; “Very punchy and incredibly effective”; “Has the ability to rapidly absorb, filter and distil often technical or document-heavy matters and get to the crux of those points that ultimately determine cases”; “A pleasure to work with” (Chambers and Partners); “At the top of the tree for work in Wales”; ”Very user-friendly” (Legal 500); and a “National Leader” in environmental law who “… never fails to impress” (Who’s Who Legal).

For the last 15 years, Gwion has acted for Natural Resources Wales (and its predecessor bodies) in almost all its environmental litigation in the higher courts. He is also frequently instructed by the Environment Agency, Defra, the Welsh Ministers and the Marine Management Organisation in appeals and judicial review claims that raise issues of environmental law.

Gwion’s commercial clients in this area include several housing developers (St Modwen Developments Ltd, Alpine Homes Ltd, Walker Developments Ltd), statutory water undertakers (Anglian Water, Essex and Suffolk Water, Northumbrian Water) and national and regional waste operators (Stericycle UK). He has also been advising many of the UK’s most respected environmental NGOs for several years, including WWF UK, ClientEarth, Friends of the Earth and the Soil Association.

Gwion has particular expertise in the following areas:

• fisheries management
• water resources and management
• energy
• emissions trading
• flood risk management
• waste management
• environmental permitting
• Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee hearings

Highlights of recent and ongoing work include:

Fisheries management

• R (Mott) v Environment Agency [2018] UKSC 10 and ongoing – resisting a series of challenges on A1P1 ECHR grounds to the Agency’s decisions to set low catch allocations for salmon fishing in the River Wye

Water resources and management

• Acting for Natural Resources Wales to resist a series of appeals against water abstraction licences granted under the Water Abstraction (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2017 to previously exempt abstractors (2023 and ongoing)
• Anglian Water Services Ltd v Willow Inns Ltd [2022] EWHC 3549 (Admin) – successfully acted for the appellant company, appealing against the refusal of a magistrates’ court to grant it a warrant to enter land to facilitate access to its own land nearby
• R (Sharp) v Northumbrian Water Ltd [2020] EWHC 84 (Admin) – successfully acted for the water undertaker, resisting a challenge (on animal welfare grounds) to its decision to enter onto a cattle farm to fix a broken pipe
• Whitman v Cornwall Council (2019) – acted for the Council in a 3-day trial resisting an appeal made under the Land Drainage Act 1991 against a notice requiring the landowner to remove blockages in a watercourse
• River Tywi, Nantgaredig, Carmarthenshire (2017) – acted for NRW in resisting an appeal by Welsh Water against the decision to vary its abstraction licence due to concerns about shad numbers

Energy

• Kemberton Solar Farm (2024)  – obtained planning permission on appeal for a 22MW solar farm on agricultural land east of Telford in the Green Belt
• Awel y Môr offshore wind farm, off north Wales coast (2022-23) – acted for Natural Resources Wales at the DCO hearings

• Morlais tidal energy project, Anglesey (2020-21) – acted for Natural Resources Wales at the examination hearings relating to the Transport and Works Act order and advised on all required permits

• Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station, Anglesey (2018-19) – acted for Natural Resources Wales at the DCO hearings and advised on all environmental permits

• R (Friends of the Earth) v North Yorkshire County Council [2016] EWHC 3303 (Admin) – defended the County Council’s decision to grant planning permission for hydraulic fracking, the first challenge of its kind in the UK (with Sasha White KC)

• Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay (2015) – acted for Natural Resources Wales at the DCO hearings for the world’s first man-made, energy-generating tidal lagoon

Emissions trading

• NetJets Aviation Inc v Environment Agency; ABX Air Inc v Environment Agency; Arkia Israeli Airlines Ltd v Environment Agency; GullivAir Ltd v Environment Agency (2023) – acting for the Environment Agency, resisting the first tranche of test appeals against civil penalty notices issued by the Agency for breaches of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Order 2020 by aircraft operators

Flood risk management

• King v Environment Agency [2018] EWHC 65 (QB) – successfully defeated, on behalf of the Agency, several claims seeking A1P1 damages for alleged use of agricultural land as a “flood storage” area
• Sharp v North Essex Magistrates’ Court [2017] EWCA Civ 1143 – successfully resisted, on behalf of the Environment Agency, a claim challenging its use of land entry powers under the Water Resources Act 1991 to carry out flood defence works rather than using compulsory purchase powers (with Dan Kolinsky KC)

Waste management

• R (Suez Recycling and Recovery UK Ltd) v Environment Agency (2023) – acted for the Environment Agency, resisting a challenge to the lawfulness of the Agency’s procedures for assessing odour impacts during the Covid pandemic

Environmental permitting

• Atlantic Ecopark, Cardiff (2015) – acted for NRW in a 3-day inquiry, resisting an appeal against the Agency’s decision to revoke environmental permits held by the same parent company across several sites

Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee hearings

• Breakell v United Kingdom (ACCC/C/2015/131) (2020) – represented the United Kingdom Government before the Compliance Committee, responding to a complaint that a planning permission granted for the redevelopment of a hospital site had breached various articles of the Convention

Public and Administrative

Public law is at the heart of Gwion’s practice. For several years, the main legal directories have identified Gwion as a leading public law barrister, with clients commending him for being a “top-class advocate” (Legal 500) who delivers “extremely effective” pleadings and “very succinct and focused” advice (Chambers & Partners).

Before taking silk, Gwion was a member of both the Attorney General’s ‘A’ Panel of Junior Counsel and the Welsh Government’s Panel of Junior Counsel. This meant that he regularly acted for the UK and Welsh Governments in their most complex cases. Since taking silk, Gwion has continued to represent both Governments regularly in the higher courts and in international litigation.  

Many of Gwion’s cases feature aspects of planning and environmental law, but his interest in public law and judicial review extends more broadly to issues arising in immigration, human trafficking, education, equality and discrimination law, detention, electoral law, transport, standards and ethics, care standards and property-related public law.

In recent years, Gwion has acted for the UK Government in most of its litigation in the higher courts raising issues under the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings and Article 4 ECHR. He has also represented the UK Government in almost all of its significant cases on the Dublin III Regulation since 2016.

Gwion has particular interest in public law issues arising from the devolution settlement for Wales. His regular clients in Wales include the Welsh Ministers, Natural Resources Wales, the Welsh Language Commissioner and the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. In 2014, Gwion became the first Counsel in history to undertake a High Court trial entirely through the medium of Welsh.

Gwion also has established relationships with several local authorities and National Park authorities across England and Wales. Gwion advises on all aspects of local government work, with a particular expertise in education, elections and ethical standards.

For further detail about Gwion’s public law practice in the ‘Planning’ and ‘Environmental’ arenas, please click on their respective tabs above.

Examples of Gwion’s recent and ongoing public law work include:

Immigration

• R (Safe Passage International) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1821 (Admin) – challenge to the lawfulness of the Secretary of State’s policy guidance on the Dublin III Regulation
• FLV v Home Office (QB-2021-002627) – substantial damages claim resulting from a mistaken deportation
• Advising several local authorities on challenging the use of hotels in their areas as temporary accommodation for asylum-seekers
• R (MR) v SSHD (JR/1696/2020); R (ShM) v SSHD (JR/1592/2020); R (MA) v SSHD (JR/1265/2020); R (OAK) v SSHD (JR/1149/2020); R (SM) v SSHD (JR/1068/2020); R (KF) v SSHD (JR/1642/2019); R (NT) v SSHD (JR/8178/2018); R (BJ) v SSHD (JR/5268/2018)  – various challenges to decisions made by the SSHD to refuse requests by EU states to take charge of asylum applications
• R (JS) v SSHD [2020] EWHC 3053 (Admin) – whether claimant’s failure to mention his date of birth in his statement of facts and grounds for judicial review was a breach of the duty of candour
• R (MS (a child)) v SSHD [2019] EWCA Civ 1340 – whether the SSHD’s decision to refuse a request by another state to take charge of an asylum claim is a “transfer decision” under the Dublin III Regulation (with Lisa Giovannetti KC)
• SSHD v PG (Jamaica) [2019] EWCA Civ 1213 – successfully acted for the SSHD in her appeal against a tribunal decision that the deportation of a foreign criminal to Jamaica would be “unduly harsh”
• MS (Malaysia) v SSHD [2019] EWCA Civ 580 – whether a non-EU citizen had acquired a derivative right to remain in the UK as the carer of her elderly mother
• KV (Sri Lanka) v SSHD [2018] EWCA Civ 2483 – whether the tribunal had correctly dealt with the issue of the appellant’s alleged statelessness in an appeal against the deprivation of British citizenship

Human trafficking

• R (O) v SSHD [2019] EWHC 148 (Admin) – successfully resisted claims alleging systemic unlawful delay in making ‘conclusive grounds’ decisions in relation to potential victims of trafficking (with Lisa Giovannetti KC)
• R (MN) v SSHD [2018] EWHC 3263 (QB) – successfully defended the SSHD’s policy that the balance of probabilities should be applied when deciding whether a person is a victim of human trafficking
• R (EM) v SSHD [2018] EWCA Civ 1070 – leading case on the SSHD’s obligations to those identified as potential victims of trafficking but whose detention is maintained on public order grounds (with James Eadie KC)
• SSHD v MS (Pakistan) [2018] EWCA Civ 594 – leading case on the jurisdiction of a tribunal, when dealing with an appeal against removal, to revisit a previous decision by the SSHD that the appellant was not a victim of trafficking
• R (TDT) v SSHD [2018] EWCA Civ 1395 – the first claim brought in the UK alleging that the SSHD had breached her positive operational duty under Art. 4 ECHR by releasing from detention a Vietnamese national claimed to be at risk of re-trafficking

Education

• R (Rhieni Dros Addysg Gymraeg) v Neath Port Talbot CBC [2022] EWHC 2674 (Admin) – acted for the successful claimant, challenging the Council’s decision to postpone the preparation of a Welsh language impact assessment of a school reorganisation proposal until after the statutory consultation period
• R (Driver) v Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC [2020] EWCA Civ 1759 – acted for the Welsh Ministers as an interested party, making submissions on the proper approach to the construction of legislation in both English and Welsh
• RE v Governing Body of Ysgol Eifion Wyn, Porthmadog  – successfully acted for a disabled boy with Prader Willi syndrome in a discrimination claim before the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales (failure to make reasonable adjustments)
• R (Jones) v Denbighshire County Council [2016] EWHC 2074 (Admin) – successfully challenged the decision to close a rural Welsh-medium primary school

Equality and discrimination law

• R (FA (Sudan)) v SSHD [2021] EWCA Civ 59 – successfully resisted an appeal claiming that the SSHD’s ‘destitution domestic violence concession’ unlawfully discriminated against those without leave to remain as the spouse/partner of a British citizen
• R (Welsh Language Commissioner) v National Savings and Investments [2014] EWHC 488 (Admin) – sole counsel for the Commissioner in her first judicial review, challenging successfully NS&I’s decision to revoke its Welsh language scheme and cease its Welsh language services

Welsh Language Standards

• Neath Port Talbot CBC v Welsh Language Commissioner (2023) – acted for the Welsh Language Commissioner, successfully resisting the Council's appeal to the Welsh Language Tribunal against her decision that a consultation undertaken by the Council for a school reorganisation proposal breached the statutory Welsh Language Standards

Property-related public law

• Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd v Welsh Ministers [2020] EWHC 1993 (Admin) – successfully defended the decision of the Welsh Ministers to confirm a public right of way across a coastal railway in Llandudno Junction, north Wales
• Wharton Park, Durham (2017) – acted for Durham County Council in a right of way inquiry: successfully persuaded the inspector to depart from her interim decision and conclude that public use of parkland held under the Public Health Act 1875 and Open Spaces Act 1906 was “by right”, not “as of right”

Cross-practice

Landmark's barristers often work at the intersection of our core practice areas; bringing a wide range of skills, knowledge and experience to bear on a particular dispute or issue facing a client.

Our focus is always on achieving the best possible outcome for our client. By viewing the client's objectives in a holistic way - and not purely through the lens of one rigidly-defined legal area - we deliver the best possible advice and representation in complex matters that engage multiple specialist areas of law. 

Whether it's providing support as an individual cross-practice barrister or a cross-disciplinary team of Landmark counsel, we are able to draw on an outstanding array of complementary skillsets and knowledge bases. This often achieves a better result than instructing multiple barristers from different specialist sets. This also improves the quality of client care through increased levels of communication, quicker response times, and a coordinated approach to clerking and fees, made possible by our team-based cross-practice approach.

Please contact our practice management team for more information.

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