Simon Kelly

I am a senior associate specialising in planning and related areas of public law. I qualified at a City firm in September 2005, where I eventually became a senior solicitor. I joined Tees in October 2024.

Delivering what you need

The purpose of planning is to get the right development in the right place. Changes in government and local planning policy, new legislation and court decisions mean that the planning system is constantly evolving. My role is to help landowners, developers and individuals negotiate this constantly changing landscape efficiently and cost effectively.

My work covers the whole gamut of planning, including local plan representations, supporting planning applications, advising on the discharge of conditions, negotiating planning and infrastructure agreements, planning enforcement, promoting or opposing compulsory purchase orders, advising on public rights of way/stopping up orders and advising on town and village green/commons registrations.  Where things go wrong, I also advise on planning and enforcement appeals, and on planning judicial reviews.

Successful projects include advising a historic private school in the northwest on securing planning permission to relocate to a green belt campus, advising the local authority promoting a compulsory purchase order to facilitate delivery of a new railway station at Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside, advising on the post-games redevelopment of the Olympic Park, advising a variety of major housebuilders on securing planning permissions for residential development, and advising on a number of retail-led mixed-use developments.