Solicitor
Company Director
Airport planning in England and France
Robert Moses
Planning Policy
Democracy and Public Benefit in Planning
The history of the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and other key post WWII planning legislation
Biography:
Qualified and worked in the City of London as mergers and acquisitions lawyer, then moved to become European Counsel for Dow Jones listed international Group working in London and Paris. Moved to New York due to family commitments and ran my own business. I am passionate about building and have renovated or rebuilt several houses, winning a commendation for a country house which I designed, constructed from handmade bricks made for the Cambridge University Library extension. I undertook the MPhil in Planning Growth and Regeneration in 2016/2017 and now continue my research on airport planning, developing the subject of my masters dissertation into a comparative study of Heathrow North West runway and Notre Dame Des Landes airport, cancelled by Macron in 2018. I continue to work within the planning system, and have in 2018 inter alia developed a proposal for a site for 78 houses: this practical experience gives me invaluable insights into the planning process.
Research Interests
I am undertaking a comparative case study of French and English airport planning, examining how each country manages, absorbs and legitimises this ultimate planning challenge, through frameworks of democracy and public or national interest. The case studies are analysed through the lens of the Rationality and Power theory of Bent Flyvbjerg and critical discourse analysis. This research focuses on the Heathrow Third runway proposal and the Notre Dame des Landes airport proposal (also described as the Longest fight in France). I am very fortunate to be supervised by Professor Pete Tyler, who advised on the Estuary Airport Proposal and Mr Kelvin MacDonald, currently examining the Manston Airport Application under The Planning Act 2008.
Other Professional Activities
I gave a lecture in 2018 at New College Oxford, on the development of protection of English Historic Buildings and Sites and the impact of neoliberal policies on these protections.