Experience of working for local authorities, parish councils and third-party stakeholders includes independent landscape, townscape and visual advice at planning application, appeal and plan-making stages. This work has included the review of submitted Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments, assessment of landscape and visual policy compliance, preparation of appeal evidence, support at hearings and inquiries, and the drafting of consultation responses on emerging planning policy. 

Relevant local authority experience includes Deal Farm, Bressingham, where support was provided to South Norfolk Council in relation to a partially retrospective anaerobic digester development. The work included review of the submitted LVIA and landscape strategy, followed by expert witness evidence at inquiry after the application was refused for reasons including landscape and visual impact. The Council’s position was upheld, and the digesters were subsequently removed to preserve the local rural character and visual openness. 

Further local authority experience includes acting for Buckinghamshire Council in relation to the National Society for Epilepsy appeal for a major mixed-use development, including up to 975 homes, on Green Belt land adjacent to the Chilterns National Landscape. Although the appeal was allowed, the Inspector and Minister of State for Housing agreed with the landscape evidence that the proposal would cause harm to Green Belt openness and to the character of the landscape. Similar appeal experience includes acting for Stroud District Council in relation to a refused residential development at Tait’s Hill Road, Cam, close to the Cotswolds National Landscape, and supporting East Cambridgeshire District Council in relation to a refused housing scheme at Stretham. In the Buckinghamshire and East Cambridgeshire cases, although the appeals were allowed, the Inspectors accepted the professional judgement that significant landscape and visual harm would arise. 

Third-party and community group experience includes support for Countryside Matters in Wales in opposition to a proposed Lidl store south of Llanmaes, within an area identified as a proposed Green Wedge in the emerging Local Plan. The evidence considered the role of the site in the local landscape, its contribution to settlement separation, and the landscape and visual implications of introducing commercial development into a sensitive edge-of-settlement context. 

Ongoing parish council support includes advice to Winchfield Parish on landscape, townscape and visual matters associated with planning applications within the parish, as well as support in responding to consultation on the emerging Hart Local Plan. This work includes consideration of local landscape character, settlement setting, green infrastructure, design quality, landscape-led planning, and the adequacy of the evidence base used to inform future growth and development management decisions. 

Across this work, the focus has been on providing clear, robust and proportionate advice to decision-makers and community stakeholders, ensuring that landscape, townscape and visual matters are properly understood within the planning balance. This includes identifying where development may give rise to unacceptable harm, where mitigation or design amendments are required, and where emerging policy should be strengthened to reflect local landscape character, valued views, settlement identity and green infrastructure priorities.