We are pleased to announce the release of Essential Law for Cemetery and Crematorium Managers 2025, which replaces the earlier edition published June 2021 and which became Amazon’s best selling business law book within days of publication.
So far as we are aware, it still remains the only book on the UK market dealing with this particular aspect of law. The Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management, which represents the cemetery and crematorium industries in the UK, commissioned the publication of this book, as it did the earlier version. The book is priced at £46.00 for the paperback.
Ebook and hardback versions are also planned for the new year and we will keep you updated regarding this. The earlier version, published June 2021, has now been withdrawn from sale. Updated content includes: new arrangements for death certification, following adoption of the statutory medical examiner system on 9 September, 2024; future legal changes regarding re-use of existing graves, which are expected as a result of the Law Commission consultation on burial and cremation launched 3rd October 2024 which is currently underway; as well as recent case law concerning the interpretation of burial rights and involving a well-known London cemetery. The book also includes three real-life case studies on matters in which ICCM has recently been asked to advise.
Updated guidance for the 34,500 in-house solicitors practising in England and Wales, re-states how those solicitors should respond to the challenges of working for a corporate employer, particularly where employer-demands conflict with the general professional responsibilities which apply to all UK lawyers. Published 18 November, 2024 under the heading, ‘Dedicated Guidance Issued to Support In-House Solicitors’, it provides advice on how to identify and deal with potential conflicts of interest as well as client confidentiality. It also provides advice to corporate employers on how to manage in-house solicitors in a way which does not compromise their professional responsibilities. But there is a limit as to how much information you can put in a couple of dozen pages.
The opening chapters of Local Authority Conveyancing Law and Practice UK. also deals with the same subject matter, but in much greater detail. It addresses the circumstances when a practising certificate is required as well as issues relating to anti-money laundering; professional training; avoiding conflicts of interest and client confidentiality. But whilst the SRA guidance is written for all in-house solicitors, Local Authority Conveyancing Law and Practice focuses on that a tiny proportion of solicitors forming part of an in-house conveyancing team.
It also deals with the challenges facing local authority conveyancing teams, which now exist in a competitive environment where nothing can be taken for granted. It explains what a corporate client really wants from an in-house team, which is not about being cheap and cheerful. The book will also encourage you to look seriously at any opportunities for getting into management. Because management experience does not only look good on a CV. It is also a valuable life skill. But no local authority conveyancing book would be complete without a raft of reference material as well as practical tips on how to manage a conveyancing transaction when you don’t have access to a client account.
Speed is of the essence when it comes to the enforcement of planning regulations. Unauthorised building work can become immune from planning enforcement in as little as four years. For an authorised change of use, it is 10 years. Although the law was changed on 25 April, 2024 to extend the enforcement of time limits from four years to 10 years in relation to unauthorised building work, that change does not apply retrospectively. It means that unauthorized building work completed before that date will continue to be subject to the four year rule before it becomes immune from enforcement. Nor are planning irregularities always a victimless crime. Imagine if you were disturbed day and night by the revving of car engines because your next door neighbour had turned their domestic garage into a motor repair shop. Wouldn’t you want your council to take action?
Nor are local authorities obliged to act against planning irregularities in every case. Only when they consider it ‘expedient’ to do so. But this does not absolve councils from the responsibility to investigate complaints of planning breaches, where they are reported, in order to make that crucial decision. The council which refuses to do this and allows a planning irregularity to become ‘established’ by default, opens itself up to the possibility of ombudsman complaints. Nor is it any excuse for the local authority to say that it does not have the resources to investigate planning irregularities. Does it have the resources to pay out the compensation claims which will inevitably follow if it fails to act against planning irregularities where there is a need to do so?
Once a planning irregularity has been reported, it needs to be investigated. Only then, can a decision be made as to whether it is ‘expedient’ to take enforcement action. But that is only the beginning of a statutory process.
Information has to be gathered. A decision made whether it is expedient take planning enforcement action or to ignore the irregularity because it is considered harmless. Once it is decided that enforcement action has to be taken, a legal decision has to be taken as to the appropriate course of action to be taken against that planning-breach. There are several choices. Including a planning contravention notice; breach of condition notice; or the traditional enforcement notice, against which there is an appeal to the Secretary of state, which could, although rarely, lead to the cost of a public inquiry. Once any statutory appeals against the enforcement process has been exhausted, the local authority have to follow up with prosecution if the breach continues.
It is also important that councils are seen to be robust when it comes to regulatory enforcement. Otherwise it sends the wrong message. That planning irregularities can be ignored. It is why Dorset Council’s backlog of 900 cases is so problematic. Many of those pending cases are already on their way to becoming immune from planning enforcement, as well as those cases which have already become immune. If the council does not have the resources in-house to deal with it, and maybe it should consider outsourcing that function.
I felt it in my bones. That Trump was going to win the 2024 presidential election. Kamala Harris seemed nice enough. But she just couldn’t get her point across. I don’t understand what she stood for. Collecting celebrity endorsements, waving your arms and going ‘Ra! Ra! Ra!, are not enough to win a presidential election. It’s about having a message that resonates. And Trump certainly had that. I really don’t want Taylor Swift telling me how to vote in a UK general election. So Britain has just got to roll with it. Something I don’t think was helped by David Lammy’s 2019 comments about Trump. Wow! That’s going to be good for business. Oh I forgot! He and Starmer had lunch with Trump. So that makes it all right.
When I wrote about Trump in my 2021 book, Write Quick. Get Published, I had no idea that he was going to make a comeback. For me, he was just a trope of a showman come politician. An entertainer. Someone who used their celebrity to propel himself into the White House. This is what I said.
“If you are writing a political thriller, wouldn’t you want to reserve a place for Donald Trump? He might be the bad boy of American politics. But he’s also a big character. He’s larger than life. Remember that before he became president, he was an entertainer. He hosted the American version of The Apprentice from 2004 to 2015. Like Reagan before him, it was his celebrity which propelled him into the White House. Pitch him against other politicians in a stand-up comedy contest and he’d win hands down. No one is asking you to like him. Of course you’d have to change the name. And not include anything which might identify the real person behind that character. You might even decide to cast your president as a female. But the core authentic personality would still be the same. “
There are also some things on which I agree with Trump. Like Trump, it irritates me the way the West has outsourced all of its jobs, manufacturing and pollution to China. Why is it that I can’t buy anything that isn’t made in China? Even the £150 jacket which I saw in Debenhams before it closed up shop. Even the Covid testing kit which I chucked in the bin. It’s as though I don’t have a choice. Several years ago, a weddings outfitter was prosecuted after pretending that wedding dresses were made in its own factory, when in fact they had a label saying that they were made in China. I’m glad I wasn’t wearing it.
Don’t worry! You won’t wake up to find a bulldozer in your garden. A grant of planning permission cannot override your property rights. In fact in planning law, land ownership and associated property rights are classed as ‘non-material considerations’, which means that your local planning committee cannot take them into account when considering the planning application.However anyone applying for planning permission is required to complete a form providing ownership details for the land in question. This is to ensure that landowners are informed of planning applications affecting their land.
As the properties are, in this case, leasehold, it is important that anyone thinking of extending their home, first looks at their lease, as there will always be restrictions on what alterations or additions can be carried our. Generally, residential leasehold ownership only extends to the interior of the flat and not to any part of the structure or exterior of the building.
It would seem to me that the only way in which a development of this type could be carried out would be if all the owners and the ground landlord clubbed together to make it happen. Not forgetting the mortgage lenders. So on balance, I don’t think it’s gonna happen.
BRUCE AND HOLLY 