David has appeared frequently in the High Court and Court of Appeal in England & Wales and in Northern Ireland, the Lands Chamber and the Supreme Court. David has been nominated for the Planning and Land Use Silk of the Year in the Legal 500 Awards 2024.

He has also appeared in the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Court of Appeal and Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong. Before taking silk, David was a member of what is now the “A Panel” of Treasury Counsel. He is called to the Bar of Northern Ireland and appears before the NI Courts and the Planning Appeals Commission.

David appears frequently in court and at inquiries at all levels and provides advisory and advocacy services for a wide range of clients, private and public. During his time as Treasury Panel counsel, he appeared in many planning and public law cases and acted for a wide range of government departments and bodies. As well advising and representing private and commercial clients he has continued to act for central and local government, regulators and other and public bodies both in England & Wales and in Northern Ireland since taking silk.

David also sits as a Deputy High Court Judge in the KBD (Admin and Planning Courts and London Circuit Commercial Court) and as a Recorder in the Crown Court as well as an arbitrator, expert and mediator.

He is a Bencher of the Middle Temple.

David’s practice began in property law which expanded while a junior to include planning, environment and public law. He still undertakes property work, most frequently that closely related to public law issues and planning e.g. easements and covenants, electricity wayleaves, the statutory overriding and discharge of third party rights, compulsory purchase and compensation, countryside, agricultural and wildlife issues as well as trespass and protest cases (most recently the litigation against Insulate Britain).

David's planning and environmental work covers a wide range of planning work including housing, commercial, heritage, ecology, infrastructure, climate change, energy, minerals and waste and local plans and David has been particularly involved in waste, energy, environmental assessment and habitats issues recently (including water stress/neutrality issues and nutrient neutrality). Public law work includes compulsory purchase and compensation, highways and public rights of way, local government law and disputes over electricity wayleaves and easements.

Recent cases include R (Finch) v Surrey CC [2024] UKSC 20 (EIA and “downstream” effects of oil production), Re No Gas Caverns Ltd's Application for Judicial Review [2024] NICA 50 (undersea gas storage, NI constitutional law/executive referral), Protect Dunsfold Ltd v Sec of State [2024] JPL 183 (gas exploration and climate change), R. (Wyatt) v Fareham BC 83 [2023] P.T.S.R. 1952 (habitats assessment and nutrient neutrality), Secretary of State for Transport v Curzon Park Ltd [2023] 1WLR 2762 (HS2 CPO compensation – certificates of appropriate alternative development), Arnold White Estates Ltd v Forestry Commission [2023] PTSR 242 (interrelationship between planning and forestry felling licences), Jones v MOD [2022] Env LR 13 (noise nuisance claim against RAF fast jet training), National Highways Ltd v Springorum [2022] EWHC 205 (QB) (committals for breaches of injunctions preventing highways trespass), Wild Justice v Natural Resources Wales [2021] Env LR 24 (wildlife licensing), Southwark LBC v. Transport for London [2020] AC 914 (vesting of London strategic highways) and Canterbury CC v Secretary of State [2019] JPL 1321 (habitats mitigation following People over Wind).

Recent major inquiries: opposing the Immingham Eastern Ro-Ro Terminal DCO (hearings 2023, continuing), promoting the City of York Local Plan at examination (2019 onwards), Whitechapel Bell Foundry (restoration and reuse of heritage assets) (2020/21), Portland Energy Recovery Facility Inquiry (December 2023, energy from waste plant on the Isle of Portland), Northacre Energy from Waste Facility (2022/3) (energy from waste plant in Wiltshire) and Loxley Exploratory Gas Well, Dunsfold (2021-2) and opposing the Barking Vicarage Fields CPO (unviable town centre CPO) (2022).

• B.A. (First Class) in Jurisprudence, Hertford College, Oxford (1981)

• BCL, Hertford College, Oxford (1982)

Awards

• Bar Prize for Finance, Commerce and Industry (1982)

• Silk of the Year in Environment and Planning at the Chambers & Partners Bar Awards (2008)

Memberships 

• Bencher and member of the Middle Temple

• Boundary Commission for England (2009)

• Chairman of the St Paul’s Covent Garden Millennium Trust

• Member of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland

• Formerly a member of the Treasury Panel of Junior Counsel (Common Law) (now the “A Panel) (until 2000)

Publications 

• David is General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Planning Law and Practice