Press coverage

Sheep grazing in front of quarry machines

Fielding queries from the media is all part of the job. Here's a selection of articles that have mentioned my cases and campaigns in the last few years.

2020–

'We've got our future back': elation for Frome residents as Acorn pulls out of Saxonvale regeneration site

2024: Stonehenge tunnel scheme scrapped by government, BBC News, 29 July 2024.
2024: FA Cup: 'Newport v Man Utd not possible without my dad', BBC News, January 28, 2024, and Giantkillers: The Team That Wouldn't Die (BBC iPlayer, 3 August 2019).
2023: Stonehenge campaigners’ last-chance bid to save site from road tunnel, The Guardian, December 11, 2023.
2023: How one English town fought cookie-cutter housing by daring to dream a different future, The Guardian, December 10, 2023.
2023: 'Darwin’s oak' to be felled to make way for Shrewsbury bypass, The Guardian, November 1, 2023.
2023: Controversial Shrewsbury North West Relief Road approved despite huge number of objections, Shropshire Star, October 31, 2023.
2023: Frome Saxonvale: High Court quashes planning permission, BBC News, October 18, 2023.
2023: Council undermines opposition to its own planning application on contentious road scheme, Transport Action Network, September 29, 2023.
2023: Oxfordshire County Council rejects £300M Didcot road scheme against planning advice, New Civil Engineer, July 21, 2023.
2023: HIF1 road scheme rejected by Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford Mail, July 18, 2023.
2023: HIF1 project turned down by councillors in Oxfordshire, BBC News, July 18, 2023.
2022: Fat chance of safe water for Britain's wild swimmers, The Guardian, April 22, 2022.
2021: High court victory for Stonehenge campaigners as tunnel is ruled unlawful, The Guardian, July 30, 2021.
2021: Stonehenge tunnel campaigners win court battle, BBC News, July 30, 2021.
2021: Activists fight to save 550-year-old oak threatened by new Shrewsbury road, The Guardian, April 26, 2021.
2021: A38 Road Expansion "stopped" following resident's legal objection on Climate Change grounds, Derby News, April 11, 2021.
2021: Residents views needed on £8.7 million Farnborough North Camp transport scheme, In Your Area, February 4, 2021.
2020: Campaigners launch legal challenge over Stonehenge road tunnel, The Guardian, November 30, 2020.

2015–2019

2019: Fears for future of 14th century castle at centre of quarry battle, Dorset Echo, 2019.
2019: M4 relief road: Newport motorway plans scrapped, BBC News, 4 June 2019.
2018: Sajid Javid faces battle over 4% affordable homes in Sainsbury's scheme, The Guardian, 23 March 2018.
2016: Sidford business park plan refused by district council, Sidmouth Herald, 27 September 2016.
2016: Damning response to Sidford business park plans, Sidmouth Herald, 21 June 2016.
2015: FOI: Woman forced her council to spill secrets of West Way plan, Oxford Mail, 12 November 2015. I advised Mary on her FOI request and assisted with her tribunal.
2015: Clyst St Mary villagers oppose expansion plan, Exeter Express & Echo, 22 January 2015.
2015: Clyst St Mary residents to hire private planning consultant to fight developments, Exeter Express & Echo, 8 January 2015.

2010–2014

2014: Pinewood Studios wins appeal over £200m expansion plan, BBC News, 19 June 2014.
2014: Our Government’s land-grab legacy, The Telegraph, 10 January 2014.
2013: The Law of the Commons: Climate Change Protest in Buckfastleigh by Lucy Finchett-Maddock, Mothiur Rahman and Isabel Carlisle, Critical Legal Thinking, 23 October 2013.
2013: 'A Berlin wall for wildlife': battle looms over Gwent Levels motorway plan, The Guardian, 18 October 2013.
2013: Whitecleave quarry ash recycling plans rejected, BBC News, 17 October 2013.
2013: Welsh government faces legal challenge over Cardiff incinerator funding, The Guardian, 11 October 2013.
2013: Town councillors reject solar farm, Sidmouth Herald, 24 September 2013.
2013: Inquiry into MVV Energie ash recycling at Whitecleave quarry, BBC News, 25 June 2013.
2013: Scaring the Living Daylights out of People: The Local Lobby and the Failure of Democracy by Anna Minton, Spinwatch, March 2013.
2012: Sidmouth mans the barricades, Telegraph, 22 October 2012.
2012: Churston golf clubhouse plan rejected, This is Devon, 28 June 2012.
2012: Incinerator ash plan for Buckfastleigh quarry rejected, BBC News, 25 April 2012.
2012: Pinewood pulls plug on £200m 'Hollywood' project plan, The Guardian, 20 January 2012.
2011: Disarray marks legal defeat for incinerator agencies, Materials Recycling Week, 4 November 2011.
2011: Sita Cornwall incinerator move overturned by High Court, BBC News, October 2011.
2011: Closing statement heard in Project Pinewood public inquiry, Maidenhead Advertiser, May 2011.
2010: What will the coalition Government do about planning law? by Bib van der Zee, The Ecologist, 25 May 2010.
2010: Inquiry starts into gravel extraction plans, Oxford Mail, April 2010.

2005–2009

2009: Government rejects Westbury bypass plan, White Horse Alliance press release, July 2009.
2009: Businesses welcome the Westbury bypass decision, This is Wiltshire, 2009.
2008: Last-ditch bid to stop bypass, Longridge and Ribble Valley News, 2008.
2007: Community face battle to save jurassic coastline environment, ELF News, 2007.
2006: Charlie battles to save's Earth's future, Exeter Express & Echo, 6 February 2006.
2006: Brighton torn between old England and new Albion, The Guardian, 18 January 2006.
2006: Good lives: The people making a difference: Charlie Hopkins, The Guardian, 3 January 2006.
2005: Why did stadium inquiry go into extra time?, Telegraph, 19 March 2005.

2000–2004

2003: Lawyer in the News: Charlie Hopkins and the Arsenal Football Stadium, The Law Society Gazette, 25 July 2003.
2003: Arsenal faces new battle in European Court of Human Rights over stadium project, ISCA Press Release, 16 July 2003.
2002: Fired up for action, The Guardian, 16 January 2002.
2001: Growth of the secret state, The Guardian, 29 August 2001.
2001: MoD tries to veto wind farm sites and Leader: Full of wind: The MoD needs a green lesson quickly, The Guardian, 31 May 2001.
2001: Town and County Planning: Telecoms Mast, The Law Society Gazette, 26 February 2001.
2000: Land disposal: Crichel Down Rules , The Law Society Gazette, 30 June 2000.

1994–1999

1999: Eco lawyers branch out, The Lawyer, 15 February 1999.
1998: Teigngrace river diversion plan withdrawn, Friends of the Earth press release,10 September 1998.
1998: Court of Appeal rules that government acted illegally over genetic maize trial crop - but refuses to order its destruction, Friends of the Earth: press release, 21 July 1998.
1998: Frankenstein foods" threaten organic farmer, Friends of the Earth press release 7 May 1998.
1995: Courts crack down on pollution: The Lawyer, 30 April 1996.
1995: Judge sides with women in beach pollution battle: The Telegraph, 10 November 1995.
1995: Smokers in Britain get legal aid: British Medical Journal, 11 February 1995.
1994: Turning over an old leaf: The tobacco industry in Britain is in decline and under fire...: The Independent, 21 August 1994.