Richard Buxton
Richard is a solicitor who has worked independently in environmental law since 1989. He has fought, and won, several important cases in this "Cinderella" area of the law. These include establishing a basic principle relating to classification of Special Protection Areas for birds, seeing the proper application of important but under-used EU rules on environmental impact assessment, proving the unlawfulness of the government's regulation of night flying at Heathrow airport, and improving local authority accountability in planning decisions in a series of cases dealing with the need to give reasons for decisions.
With this background he has been able to assist in all sorts of situations of concern to clients, including large and small development proposals, wind farms, telecommunication masts, aircraft noise, road, airport and port proposals, pipelines, industrial plants, and ombudsmen.
Besides challenging local and central government decisions, work is increasingly involving claims against bad neighbours, particularly for noise pollution. Cases that have caught the public eye include one against the Ministry of Defence for excessive noise from Harrier aircraft training, and noise from the Alton Towers theme park.
The work has taken him to most levels of court, including several cases in the House of Lords, the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.
Richard worked for eight years to 1999 as a specialist adviser on water resources to the Environment Agency and its predecessor National Rivers Authority, so has an in-depth knowledge of the legal and practical aspects of abstraction licensing in England and Wales, as well as related water law.
He went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and qualified as a solicitor in 1978 with Farrer & Co. He worked with Sinclair Roche and Temperley, a City of London firm specialising in shipping work, before being seconded by them to a Japanese shipping client in Tokyo. He took time off to obtain a master's degree in environmental science and policy from Yale University and gain practical environmental consultancy experience in Canada, particularly in fisheries and geoscience.
He is a member of the Law Society and the Institute of Environmental Assessment, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a member of the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association. He is a supporter of the Environmental Law Foundation which provides initial free advice to clients abot environmental problems.
He has given evidence to the House of Lords European Communities subcommittee on enquiries into enforcement of EU environmental law, and into access to environmental information. He is author of part of Halsbury's Laws, and its Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, relating to water.
Susan Ring
Susan became a partner in the firm in 2000. She started working with Richard Buxton in 1997, given an acute interest in aircraft noise work - living under the flight path into Heathrow. She qualified as a solicitor in 1991 with Bischoff & Co (later merged with Frere Cholmeley to form Frere Cholmeley Bischoff), a City of London firm. She had trained there since 1989 and worked in the Litigation Department until September 1996.
She left to pursue her interest in environmental law. To develop expertise in this area, she completed a one year full-time Master of Laws degree course in environmental law at SOAS, University of London. She was awarded the degree of Master of Laws with merit in 1997.
Working with Richard Buxton, she has handled several of the aircraft noise cases, including representing the Local Authorities Aircraft Noise Council at the Terminal 5 Inquiry and assisting with the night flights litigation at the European Court of Human Rights. She has handled a number of high profile cases including successful assaults on controversial developments in London, at Spitalfields Market and at the old Crystal Palace site. She was responsible for handling a dispute about another large London development, which shed much need light on the issue of time limits in public law cases, in the House of Lords. She also ran a case in relation to old mining consents which went to the European Court of Justice and has been hugely important in clarifying the extent of the UK's obligations in the controversial field of environmental impact assessment.
Susan was The Times' ‘Lawyer of the Week' in January 2007 as a result of winning the landmark Barker environmental impact assessment case in the House of Lords (following a reference by the House of Lords to the European Court of Justice). As a result, the Government has had to consult on proposals to amend the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations to require that that where development consent comprises a multi-stage process e.g. outline planning applications, EIA can be required before approval of reserved matters. The Regulations will also apply to conditions attached to full planning permissions which do not permit development until the submission of certain detailed matters and their approval by the planning authority.
Susan is currently acting for a large number of residents' groups objecting to wind farm development near their homes. Residents are typically concerned that the wind turbines are being sited too close to their homes, with resultant noise pollution problems and impact on landscape, and that the claims for the likely electricity generation of the wind turbines is exaggerated:
(1) In the Hoare case, the Secretary of State agreed to quash its Inspector's decision to grant planning permission for 2 wind turbines on the ground that the noise condition imposed by the Inspector was unenforceable, unreasonable and imprecise. Following a fresh planning inquiry, the Inspector refused Ecotricity’s planning appeal on the grounds that thepoints in favour of the scheme did not outweigh the materially adverse effect ofnoise from the turbines on the living conditions of neighbours.
(2) In Lee, the Secretary of State agreed to quash its Inspector's decision to grant planning permission for 10 wind turbines on the ground that the noise condition was unenforceable.
(3) In NOWAP, the Council agreed to quash its decision to allow the application for approval of details in relation to wind turbines on the ground that the Council acted in breach of a legitimate expectation and irrationally in determining the application for approval of details without consulting NOWAP or the Parham, Great Glemham or Marlesford Parish Councils or the public at large on the application prior to its determination.
(4) In Hulme, which concerned an application by RES to erect 9 wind turbines in a Devon valley celebrated by the poet Ted Hughes, Mr Hulme complained that (1) the failure by RES to provide him with the raw background noise data recorded by them at his property was unfair and amounted to a breach of natural justice (2) the Inspector expressly left out of account consideration of a key aspect of the planning balance - namely the extent to which the windfarm proposals would deliver the benefits claimed for it in terms of generating capacity and contribution to renewable energy targets (and thus reduction in carbon emissions) and (3) the noise condition was imprecise and unenforceable. In the High Court Mr Justice Mitting criticised the developer for withholding the information in the following terms: "The developer refused to produce the raw data for a variety of reasons, which for myself I find thoroughly unconvincing. First, commercial confidentiality; it is difficult to see how there could conceivably be any commercial confidentiality in the matter of wind noise anywhere, let alone on this site. Secondly, that Mr Hulme, unaided, would not understand them; that may well be so, but he had indicated a willingness to obtain expert advice to permit him to do so. Thirdly, that the developer was unwilling to spend professional time and cost in assisting Mr Hulme to understand the raw data; that too was not a sensible argument, because all that he sought was the data itself and not any explanation of it." However, Mitting J dismissed Mr Hulme's claim, holding amongst other things that he had not been substantially prejudiced by the withholding of the information. Mr Hulme appealed on grounds (1) and (2) above and was given permission to appeal by the Court of Appeal on the basis that the grounds were arguable, Lord Justice Laws commenting that Mitting J's criticisms of the developer seemed ‘excessively mild' in the circumstances. The Secretary of State and developer agreed before the Court of Appeal hearing listed for 25 July 2008 that the Inspector's decision should be quashed.
(5) Susan has also been asked to represent residents who are experiencing nuisance from wind turbines that are now in operation; noise measurements suggest that low frequency noise from the wind turbines is interfering with enjoyment of their homes and causing sleep disturbance.
Susan has recently (1) represented residents in Salisbury who were concerned about new settlements in the countryside that were being proposed in the Local Development Framework; following criticism of the consultation process, proposals for these new settlements have now been removed; (2) successfully launched judicial proceedings for a national heritage organisation to save a listed barn near Salisbury; (3) persuaded TfL to mediate with local residents concerned about the impacts of road widening on the North Circular; (4) acted in a dispute between residents and a noisy pub; (5) quashed a local authority's decision to grant planning permission for redevelopment of Finsbury Square for failure to consider environmental impact assessment; (6) acted for the successful claimant in the landmark village green case Kubiak which provided that a landowner could now no longer apply to the court for a declaration that his land is not registrable as a green - landowners had been doing this and applying for their costs of so doing to dissuade residents from applying to register village greens; (7) been acting for residents opposed to the development of Roswell Pits (now designated as a SSSI) in Ely as a marina.
Susan is a trustee of the Airfields Environment Trust
Paul Stookes
Paul is a solicitor-advocate who has worked in the environmental field since 1995. He joined Richard Buxton in 2005 after four years as Chief Executive of the Environmental Law Foundation, a national charity promoting access to environmental justice and the development of environmental law. Since joining Richard he has had conduct of a number of leading cases including R (Anderson) v Bradford MDC (2006), R (Condron) v National Assembly for Wales (2006), R (Catt) v Brighton & Hove CC (2007), Morgan & Baker v Hinton Organics (2009), R (Baker) v BANES (2009), Watson v Croft Promo-sport Ltd (2009) and R (Mellor) v Secretary of State (2009).
Paul studied law at South Bank University being taught by leading academics such as Andy Under, Jeff Lever and Karen Thatcher. He gained a masters degree (MSc) in environmental law and management at the University of Bath, He completed his PhD in 2008 at the University of Hertfordshire entitled: Public involvement in environmental matters and funding constraints in securing access (UH, 2008). He began his legal career at civil rights firm, BM Birnberg & Co before moving to south-east regional firm, Berry & Berry. Paul has also spent two years working in local government specialising in environmental management and development.
Paul has written a number of books and research documents. He is author of A Practical Approach to Environmental Law 2nd ed. (OUP, 2009), co-author of People Power (Lawpack, 2008), and editor of the environmental sentencing guidelines: Costing the Earth 2nd ed. (Magistrates' Association, 2009). Paul has published numerous reports articles in the national, legal and environmental press.
He lectures part-time at the School of Law, University of Hertfordshire specialising in environmental and planning law.
Prior to joining Richard Buxton, Paul was specialist adviser to the European Commission, the UNEP Global Judges Programme in Nairobi, and the Environmental Audit Committee's 2004-05 Inquiry: Environmental Crime. He is a member of the Law Society's Planning and Environment Committee, the Environmental Law Foundation, and the Solicitor's Association of Higher Rights of Audience. Paul is a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) and full member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (MIEMA).
Andrew Kelton
Andrew Kelton qualified relatively late in life as a solicitor after many years in environmental and conservation work. He began his working life in finance in London and New York but soon left for (literally) greener pastures in western North America and Scotland, where he obtained a second degree in environmental sciences (British Columbia), then worked at the Centre for Human Ecology at Edinburgh University, and thereafter in Scotland as a self-employed environmental consultant. His interests, which occasionally overlapped with those of government and non-profit funders such as Scottish Natural Heritage, World Wildlife Fund and the Salmon & Trout Association, included ecological restoration (rivers and lochs, such as Loch Leven), scientific-legal policy research (eg. for SNH on ‘sustainability'), writing (he co-published a fishing and conservation journal called The Green Highlander) and environmental advocacy. He played a significant role, for example, in salmon and sea trout anglers' successful campaign to limit and regulate the £500 million salmon farming industry, belatedly recognized as causing depletion of wild fish stocks on Scotland's west coast.
He then left for the southwest United States, again working as a freelance environmentalist before employment in research and fundraising with New Mexico rivers protection group Amigos Bravos, ‘friends of the wild rivers'. There he was involved in several successful initiatives, including a leading role in creating a conservation alliance to protect the Rio Grande, starting up the state's only active chapter of rivers conservation group Trout Unlimited, and obtaining the first designation in New Mexico of a federally protected ‘Outstanding National Resource Water', the Rio Santa Barbara.
On return to England in 2003 (after 16 years away), he went through the law conversion course and LPC at York College of Law and in 2005 persuaded Richard Buxton to take him on as the firm's first trainee solicitor. He qualified in 2007 and has ‘done the legwork' in a number of successful judicial review cases involving, for example, mobile phone masts and industrial developments especially in the countryside, with less successful tilts against some of the larger environmental windmills (sometimes literally) only being relinquished after it became clear that the prevailing wind blew strongly the other way!
Andrew's hobbies include fishing (of course), nature photography and conservation writing. He lives in Suffolk with his wife Leslie and their pack of Jack Russell terriers.
Adrienne Copithorne
Adrienne became an associate solicitor at Richard Buxton in March 2010 after completing her traineeship here. She studied the LPC at Anglia Ruskin University part time during her traineeship, and was awarded a distinction in every examinable subject and the Ewart Price Prize for the most committed and professional student. Adrienne read Law at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, where she was awarded the Sir David Williams Prize for the highest final exam results at the college in the Law tripos.
Prior to beginning her law degree, Adrienne worked for several years as a caseworker at Refugee Legal Centre (now Refugee Migrant Justice), which was awarded the Justice/Liberty Human Rights Award in 2005 for its successes in representing asylum seekers and refugees. Adrienne represented clients in hearings before the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and in detention at the Oakington Immigration Reception Centre.
Before moving to the UK in 2000, Adrienne worked for the Internation Committee of the Red Cross, interviewing and registering Kashmiri separatist militants detained by the Indian Army. She also acted as an advocate on behalf of the detainees with the Indian authorities, an experience which convinced her to begin a legal career in the fied of public law and human rights. Prior to joining the ICRC, Adrienne completed a Masters' degree in South Asia Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she held a Hewlett Foundation Fellowship.
Since joining Richard Buxton in June 2007, Adrienne has represented residents' groups and individuals in a number of planning and environmental judicial reviews, statutory nuisance (including sucessfully defending recipients of abatement notices) and private nuisance. She recently had success in obtaining permission in the Court of Appeal for judicial review of the grant of planning permission for a blimp in Cardiff Bay, which residents opposed for occupying one of the few remaining open green spaces in the area. Perhaps due to its rather unusual subject matter, the case was reported by the BBC and ITV, see: http://www.richardbuxton.co.uk/v3.0/?q=node/460
A link to the judgment of Lord Justice Sullivan can be found here: http://www.richardbuxton.co.uk/v3.0/?q=node/459.
Sara Ball
Sara Ball joined Richard Buxton in 2004 and takes care of office administration, allowing the rest of the team to concentrate on trying to keep the planet in good shape. She is often the first person you will speak to on the phone, and aims to be a “listening ear” for clients, rather than a dragon receptionist!
Her interests include organic gardening and eating, fair trade and theology. She likes children and animals and wants to bring peace to the world.