Heather Sargent

Practice Areas

Heather is ranked fourth in the list of top-rated junior planning barristers in the Planning Law Survey 2023 and has been listed in the top five juniors for the past four years.

Her experience includes:

• Acting for both developers and local planning authorities on several central London tall building schemes.

• Advising Gatwick Airport on its proposed DCO to bring its existing standby runway into routine use.

• Defending two judicial review challenges to the 2019 NPPF for MHCLG.

• Defending six judicial review challenges to the Airports NPS (which provides policy support for a third runway at Heathrow) for the Secretary of State for Transport.

• Appearing at the London Plan examination (for the London Borough of Enfield) and for site promoters at the Guildford, Wealden, Tandridge and Welwyn Hatfield Local Plans.

• Advising the acquiring authority on a CPO for a £37m road scheme (sole counsel) and acting for the acquiring authority on both the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council (Calverley Square) CPO (theatre, civic centre and office scheme) and the London Borough of Enfield (Alma Estate Regeneration) CPO.

• Acting for both appellants and local planning authorities on major housing schemes including Wisley Airfield, Guildford (2,000 units); Peel Hall, Warrington (1,200 units); and two sustainable urban extensions in Northampton.

Heather is an Assistant Editor of the Encyclopedia of Planning Law and Practice, for which she focuses on heritage matters.

Heather is fluent in French and speaks basic Welsh.