GORDON WIGNALL

Gordon Wignall is a with a long-standing interest in nuisance and related topics (statutory rights of compensation, waste, trespass, environmental permitting, etc.). He has been asked to advise and appeared in court in many cases concerning public, private and statutory nuisance (including s.82 proceedings). Their varied subject-matter has included:

• Property damage (such as by fire, flooding, pollution, explosion, subsidence) involving nationally-significant infrastructure, various types of under- and overground storage tanks, sewerage, quarries, mines, reservoirs, rivers, scrap yards, the coastline, etc.

• Noise, smell, dust, lighting and other such ‘intangibles’ involving activities such as animal rendering, a national music festival, residential flats, sulphur clouds from spoil heaps, nationally-significant motor- and motorbike-racing circuits, wind turbines, animals, landfill sites, schools, river boats, factories and foundries, etc.

• Miscellaneous issues such as blockages to roads, highway obstructions, gravestones, a former nudist colony, travellers, climate change, licensed premises, etc.

Gordon has appeared on behalf of claimants and defendants in private, public and statutory nuisance cases (including under s.82, EPA 1990 for ‘persons aggrieved’) and advises in straightforward as well as complex cases.  He has often seen the same issues considered by judges and this gives him a good understanding as to how the Courts may respond to the evidence.  Should it not be possible for a problem to be resolved without Court proceedings, then he will do his best to present a client’s case as efficiently as possible.

He has conducted a number of nuisance cases around the country under the group litigation procedures available in the High Court: in Cumbria, the North West, the North East, the Midlands, London and the South East.

Gordon has also advised in relation to nuisance actions in Africa. He is familiar with and has advised on jurisdictional issues, and he is experienced in issues concerning EU law. He conducts cases in both the civil and criminal courts, as well as before statutory tribunals and licensing committees.

Gordon’s work in respect of environmental permitting and waste has been equally varied and he has been involved in many matters connected with the permitting regime, EU-derived directives and the meaning of waste, including enforcement notices and appeals.