Meet your Committee - Mark Turner

COMMITTEE

Meet your Committee - Mark Turner

Mark Turner

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I like the variety that specialising in planning and environmental matters brings, particularly the mix of contentious and non-contentious work. In the space of a day, I can be working on a High Court judicial review of a Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a supermarket, negotiating a legal agreement (known as a ‘section 106’) with a Council which they require to grant planning permission for a housing development, and preparing objections to an application for a new public footpath.

How did you end up where you are?

I knew that I wanted to go to University but wasn’t sure what I wanted to study. I’d watched various legal TV shows and films and thought that being a lawyer would be exciting! I’d also done a few work placements in solicitors’ offices and enjoyed that. So I did a law degree at Cardiff. A local firm then recruited me as a trainee, and needed somebody in their planning team. I qualified there, and after almost a decade, moved to Aaron & Partners earlier this year.

What did you want to be when you were younger?

Some sort of driver; I liked the idea of being on the road all day with the radio on and nobody bothering me! In reality it’s probably quite lonely, and I enjoy working with others. Luckily, there’s a fun team at Aaron’s.

Career highlight (so far)?

Getting planning permission on appeal for a ‘Grand Designs’ style house using a rarely used national planning policy which says that permission can only be granted for new isolated dwellings if their design is of exceptional quality, is truly outstanding, and would help to raise standards of design more generally in rural areas. Not surprisingly, these sorts of permissions are rare, and the houses incredibly expensive to build, and therefore often don’t end up being built.

Favourite quote

“don’t sweat the small stuff”.

Favourite movie

I can’t choose one. Favourites include The Departed, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, and The Shawshank Redemption.

Dream dinner guests

Robin Williams, Barack Obama, Peter Kay.

What do you do when you’re not working?

I love travelling and exploring new places. I’m going to New Zealand for 3 weeks over Christmas/New Year. In the past few years I’ve been to Australia, and travelled from Bangkok down to Singapore. I also like shorter breaks closer to home; coming up is a weekend in Basel, Switzerland; and earlier this year I ended up in Bilbao, Spain when a trip to Slovakia was postponed.

Mark is a Partner in the Planning, Environmental, Energy and Regulatory Team at Aaron & Partners LLP, and advises clients including national housebuilders, developers, landowners and farmers on a range of matters including planning applications and appeals, Lawfulness issues, High Court challenges and Judicial Reviews, enforcement, s106 agreements, highways (s38/s278) and drainage (s104) agreements, footpath and other rights of way issues, village greens, compulsory purchase, and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).