Karen Jones

Karen Jones is a partner and head of our leading Planning & Environmental law team and a highly regarded planning and environmental lawyer with 30 years' experience.

Karen's expertise includes strategic planning advice, planning appeals, public inquiries and environmental law, particularly nature conservation law. She has practised as a parliamentary lawyer and had considerable involvement in The Channel Tunnel Rail Link project. Karen has worked in Local Government (in roles including interim head of legal and solicitor to the council), where the majority of her projects involved significant planning, environmental and conservation considerations.

Karen has published a practitioner's guide, Conservation and Land Use (2000) and has written articles for sector journals, including a regular column for Waste Planning, while also featuring in the media. 

Karen is a legal associate of the Royal Town Planning Institute (LARTPI) and holds both an LLB (Hons) Law and LLM Environmental Law from University College London. She previously taught at the College of Law and has lectured at the University of Reading's renowned School of Real Estate & Planning, part of Henley Business School. 

Karen attends and speaks at a wide range of planning and sector focused events in London and across the Thames Valley, including the firm's biannual Property & Planning seminars.

Planning magazine’s 2020 Planning Law Survey ranked Blandy & Blandy among the UK's top 15 Planning Law firms, while the firm is also highly ranked in the UK's leading guides to law firms, Chambers UK and The Legal 500. Karen is also individually recommended in both guides, with the latter naming her a 'leading individual' in the field, and acknowledged as one of the top 10 Planning Law solicitors in the UK in the 2020 Planning Law Survey.

Examples of recent work

• Dealing with a major public inquiry defending permit revocation proceedings instigated by the Environment Agency against an important and nationally strategic waste recycling plant.
• Application for diversion of highway to facilitate implementation of a planning permission for a 250,000 tonne aggregate recycling facility in Hampshire adjacent to an SPA.
• Strategic advice on issues arising at a strategic development location site for 725 houses including comprehensive delivery of infrastructure, open space provision, primary school and SANG land.
• Advice on lifting of S106 restrictions including restrictions limiting the occupation and use of residential property.
• Complex S106 negotiations for major development involving provision of a care home, general needs affordable housing, significant infrastructure contributions, open space, playing field and nature park facilities, transport, community facilities and school provision and land transfers, involving negotiation with both local and county authorities.
• Dealing with an appeal against enforcement proceedings at a prominent site where heritage and conservation area issues are key, including coordinating preparation of evidence for the case, and preparation of grounds of appeal and statement of case documents for inquiry proceedings.