Breakfast Briefing - Essential New Drainage Guidance For Lawyers

New Guidance has been released for lawyers on drainage requirements for new build developments. Local Authorities are implementing stricter planning controls in favour of more sustainable drainage systems (SuDS).

At this breakfast briefing John Bates, together with environmental lawyers and drainage experts, will explain how Local Authorities are prioritising moving to SuDS within their planning controls, walk through the Guidance Note and discuss what this means in practice for environment, property and planning lawyers and their clients.

Agenda

8:00 - 8:30 Registration, Coffee and Breakfast
8:30 - 8:35 Welcome - Stuart Pearce, Managing Director, GeoSmart
8:35 - 8:50 What are SuDS? - Dr Paul Ellis, Innovation Director, GeoSmart
8:50 - 9:10 Legislation and Guidance Note - John Bates, Drainage Barrister
9:10 - 9:30 Drainage Reports and Methodology - Chris Taylor, Product Director, GeoSmart
9:30 - 9:50 What should you do now? - Stephen Sykes, Managing Partner of Sykes Environmental LLP
9:50 - 10:15 Q & A
10:30 Finish

A certificate can be provided for CPD purposes on request.

We will be filming and photographing during this event and reserve the right to use this material in future communications.

Download the Guidance Note.

Speaker biographies

John Bates
John mainly practices in environmental law, being a former Chairman of the UK Environmental Law Association and one of the first members of the Bar to specialise in the area.

He is the author of the leading practitioner book on drainage law, the loose leaf ' Water and Drainage Law' published by Sweet & Maxwell. He advises on Town and Country Planning matters and is a member of the Planning and Environment Bar Association.

Stephen Sykes
Stephen Sykes is a solicitor and managing partner of Sykes Environmental LLP, an environmental investment and strategy business and a partner of Castle Debates.

Chairman of United Kingdom Environmental Law Association, Stephen specialises in environmental start-up companies, as well as environmental business and product development. He has a Masters Degree in environmental law as well as extensive experience in the environmental business sector.

Dr Paul Ellis
Paul is very experienced in water management and understanding the interaction between groundwater and surface water systems. He has been responsible for the investigation of flood risk, drainage and environmental risk assessment relating to property development, water resources, mineral extraction, landfill and other industries.

Paul is responsible for innovation and development of new environmental data and services for GeoSmart Information. He has worked on groundwater and surface water investigations throughout the UK and has extensive experience of sustainable drainage, including being a member of the project steering group for Susdrain.

Chris Taylor
A former founder of GroundSure, Technical Director at Argyll Environmental and Product Development Director at Landmark Information Group, Chris heads up Product Development as GeoSmart Information.

Chris has been instrumental in leading the charge to develop innovative data reports for the legal and consultancy markets. Successes include wider adoption of flood reports in the conveyancing market and delivering user-friendly environmental reports for commercial conveyancing, which became the benchmark for the industry.

Stuart Pearce
Stuart is the former CEO of the Decision Insight Information Group (Europe) and Group Managing Director of MDA Information Products (Europe).

He was previously Sales and Marketing Director at SearchFlow and Landmark Information Group. He has a strong track record in growing environmental and geographical information businesses in Europe.