SOME COMMENTS FROM PROFESSIONAL CLIENTS

“Gordon is very approachable and he knows the law inside out”
Chambers UK Bar Guide [2019].

“He looks out for alternative ways to conclude an action and novel ways of addressing disputes”
Chambers UK Bar Guide [2019].

“He is a winner with clients – he’s easy to work with and is approachable… great with the clients and builds a real rapport with the court”
Chambers UK Bar Guide [2018].

“A junior of choice for environment”; “His knowledge of his area is extremely deep and extensive”
Chambers UK Bar Guide [2017].

“His written work is second to none and he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of environmental law”
Legal 500 [2017].

“He has an analytical mind and detailed approach”
Chambers UK Bar Guide [2016].

“A great barrister who is really commercially minded, very bright and good with clients”
Chambers UK Bar Directory [2015].

“Great with the clients and builds a real rapport with the court” 
Chambers UK Bar Guide (2018)”

“A junior of choice for the environment”
Chambers UK Bar Guide (2017)

 

GORDON WIGNALL

Gordon Wignall BL is a barrister with a long-standing interest in nuisance and related topics (trespass, statutory rights of compensation, waste, 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.

He has appeared on behalf of claimants and defendants in private, public and statutory nuisance cases (including under s.82, EPA 1990 for ‘persons aggrieved’). 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).

He has 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.

EXAMPLE CASES

Fouladi v. Darout
[2019] EWHC, [2019] Costs LR 1041
Landlord & tenant; noise nuisance; breach of covenant; costs orders

R. (on the application of Cleansing Support Group Ltd) v. Environment Agency 
[2019] EWHC Civ 157 [2019] Env. L.R. 24
Environment; environmental permitting; agricultural sludge; septic tanks

R. (on the application of Protreat Ltd) v Environment Agency [2018] EWHC 1983 (Admin) [2019] Env. L.R. 5
Environment; EU law; energy; waste oil; Environment Agency; trade associations

Parkin v. Alba Proteins Ltd [2013] EWHC 2740 (QB), [2013] 9 WLUK 262
Nuisance Group Litigation; addition of parties; concealment; estoppel

R. (on the application of European Metal Recycling Ltd) v. Environment Agency [2012] EWHC 2361 (Admin), [2013] Env.L.R. 14:
Environmental permitting; noise; pollution; recycling; suspension notices

R. (on the application of South Kesteven DC) v. Grantham Magistrates’ Court [2010] EWHC 1419 (Admin) [2011] Env. L.R. 3
Statutory Nuisance; noise; pubs and bars; abatement notices; best practicable means

Watson v. Croft Promo-Sport Ltd [2008] EWHC 759 (QB), [2009] EWCA Civ 15, [2009] 3 All E.R. 249
Noise nuisance; motor sports; injunctions; neighbourhood character; planning permission

Anthony v. Coal Authority Queen’s Bench Division [2005] EWHC 1654 (QB), [2006] Env. L.R. 17
Nuisance; coal; fire; foreseeability; waste disposal

Arscott v. Coal Authority Queen’s Bench Division [2003] EWHC 1690 (QB), [2004] EWCA Civ 892, [2005] Env. L.R. 6
Nuisance; Floods; foreseeability; Interference with enjoyment; Nuisance

Hounslow LBC v. Thames Water Utilities Ltd Divisional Court [2003] EWHC 1197 (Admin), [2004] Q.B. 2120
Statutory nuisance; odours; sewage

BIOGRAPHY

Year of Call
England & Wales: 1987

Republic of Ireland: 2019

Education:
University of Oxford – MA

Grays Inn
(Prizewinner: mooting / advocacy skills)

(Prizewinner: written opinion, commercial law),

King’s College London
Diploma in EU Law,
Diploma in EU Competition Law,
MA in EU Competition Law (2014-7)

King’s Inns (Dublin)
Barrister-at-law: 2019