Ricardo Gama
Partner
Ricardo specialises in environmental claims and planning law
Ricardo is a partner in the human rights and public law department of Leigh Day, focusing on environmental claims.
He has extensive expertise in environmental and planning law including in judicial review proceedings in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, as well as in planning appeal and enforcement inquiries. He has detailed knowledge of the EIA, SEA and habitats regimes.
Before joining the firm 2021, Ricardo worked at Richard Buxton Environmental and Public Law, after several years as a planning lawyer and founding associate of Town Legal LLP, a leading planning firm. Prior to his career in law, he studied Mathematics and Philosophy at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford.
Cases on which he has worked include:
- A38 Derby Junctions: Successful quashing of development consent for road scheme in Derby on climate grounds.
- M62 J20-25 Smart Motorway: Successfully persuaded Highways England to withdraw notice which would allow a smart motorway scheme to be built under permitted development rights on the basis that its climate impacts had not been properly assessed.
- Andrews v Secretary of State: Judicial review of a written ministerial statement which would scope out large numbers of fracking proposals from consideration against local planning policies.
- Aireborough Neighbourhood Development Forum v Leeds City Council: Successful quashing of Leeds site allocations plan on the basis that a drop in objectively assessed housing need had not been properly addressed during the local plan process.
- Hopkins Homes v Suffolk Coastal: Supreme Court case regarding the correct approach to determining when policies, and particularly housing policies, are out of date for the purposes of the “tilted balance” in the National Planning Policy Framework.
- Opposing expansion of Bristol Airport: acting for campaigners in public inquiry, focusing on climate impacts of expansion.
News and blogs
Safer Tower Hamlets campaigners granted permission to appeal
A member of the campaign group Save Our Safer Streets (SOSS) has been granted permission to appeal the decision to remove Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) in Tower Hamlets.
River Action issues legal challenge against Ofwat over water bill regulation
River Action has issued a legal challenge against Ofwat accusing it of failing to properly regulate water companies, which the campaign group says could result in customers effectively having to foot the bill to cover past infrastructure failures.
High Court chicken waste judgment bolsters River Wye pollution claim against Avara Foods and Cargill, say lawyers
A High Court judgment on chicken and other agricultural waste has been welcomed by lawyers leading a legal claim against Cargill, whose chicken production companies, including Avara Foods, they allege are one of the main polluters of the River Wye.
Accreditations
