Our Advocates

Professional Information:

Year of Call: 1976
Year of Silk: 1988
Devil Masters: The Rt. Hon. Lord Hamilton; The Hon. Lord McEwan
Qualifications: LL.B University of Glasgow


Biography:

Roy Martin has been a practising member of the Bar since 1976 when he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1990. He became a Queen's Counsel in Scotland in 1988 and a Queen's Counsel in England and Wales in 2008. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates between 2004 and 2007, and as Vice-Dean between 2001 and 2004. He has been a member of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland since 2007.

In the 1980s, he was responsible for the prosecution of a substantial number of local government councillors in local authorities throughout the former Strathclyde Region for fraud and false claims for expenses, and he personally prosecuted the three most serious cases in the High Court of Justiciary. Since then, he has appeared in many of the most significant planning inquiries which have taken place in Scotland, including the Braehead and Gyle retail inquiries, the Harris Superquarry inquiry, the proposed Gartcosh gas fired power station inquiry, and the Princes Street Galleries inquiry. In Scotland since 2000, he has acted for the promoter and for objectors in a number of transport schemes which have come before the Scottish Parliament, including the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine Railway Bill, the Glasgow Airport Rail Link Bill and the Edinburgh Tram Bills. In England, he has acted for the developer in relation to an appeal under the Channel Tunnel Railway Link Act 1996 concerning the redevelopment of St Pancras Station. In 2006, he acted for the Scottish Prison Service at the local inquiry into the proposed new prison at Low Moss, North Lanarkshire. He has appeared at inquiries in both Scotland and England relating to housing, retail and minerals development.

He has acted in many court actions concerning planning matters. He has acted for private developers, planning authorities and public utilities. He has appeared at inquiries and in applications for judicial review in relation to developments concerning minerals, retail, housing, leisure, landfill, power generation and others. He has acted in matters related to roads. He has acted in relation to issues concerned with local government finance, including compulsory competitive tendering. He has acted in matters concerned with public utility projects.

He acted for the developer before the House of Lords in City of Edinburgh Council v Secretary of State for Scotland and Revival Properties Limited. He acted for the developer throughout the proceedings in connection with the Harris Superquarry Inquiry, including a successful judicial review challenge and the application to quash the decision to refuse planning permission which was conceded by the Scottish Ministers. He acted for the developer in the unsuccessful challenge to the permission for construction of the Cairngorm Mountain Railway. He appeared for the developer in a successful application to the Court of Session to quash the Rural West Edinburgh Local Plan in respect of development in the vicinity of Edinburgh Airport.

He has acted in a number of court actions and inquiries related to waste and environmental matters, including cases in Scotland concerning the use of fuel derived from sewage in a coal fired power station and the existence of nuclear particles on a beach adjacent to the former Dounreay Nuclear facility. In England, he appeared in judicial reviews arising from the proposal to break up former US Navy ships (‘ghost ships') in Hartlepool. He is currently acting for the licence holder in an inquiry which is to take place in relation to conditions imposed under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993. In 2007, he appeared for the Scottish ministers in the unsuccessful application for the judicial review of planning permission for a proposed new bridge in Bressay, Shetland.

He has acted and advised in many matters concerning compulsory purchase. He appeared for the proposed developer in a series of challenges by judicial review to the proposed use of compulsory purchase powers, and in the ultimate appeal to the House of Lords in 2007 in Standard Commercial Properties Limited v Glasgow City Council.

He has represented both landlords and tenants in relation to commercial property, and acted in the leading cases in Scotland on covenants to trade. He has acted in a number of cases concerning conveyancing and registration of title.

He was instructed to act as counsel to the inquiry which took place in 2008 into a serious explosion which occurred in Glasgow in 2004 and which resulted in deaths and injuries. The inquiry had been called by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the Scottish Ministers in accordance with the provisions of the Inquiries Act 2005.


Publications:

• Author of the chapter on Public Local Inquiries in the Scottish Planning Encyclopaedia

Appointments:

• Advocate-Depute 1984-1987
• Temporary Sheriff 1988 - 1990
• Chairman (Part time), Industrial Tribunals 1990 - 1996
• Chairman, Police Appeals Tribunals 1997 to date
• Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Advocates 2001 - 2004
• Dean of Faculty 2004 - 2007
• Co-chair of the Forum for Barristers and Advocates of the International Bar Association 2002 - 2006
• Co-chair of the International Council of Advocates and Barristers 2004 to date
• Honorary Professor, University of Glasgow School of Law (2006)
• Member of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland 2007 to 2010.
• Honorary Member of the Australian Bar Association (2008)

Membership:

• Founding Chairman, Scottish Planning Local Government and Environmental Bar Group 1991 - 1996
• Affiliate of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland

Significant Cases:

• H v J & CM Smith (Whiteinch) Limited 1990 SC (HL) 63 (House of Lords)
• Bovis Construction (Scotland) Limited v Whatlings Construction Limited 1995 SC (HL) 19, [1995] 75 BLR 1 (House of Lords)
• City of Edinburgh Council v Secretary of State for Scotland and Revival Properties Limited 1998 SC (HL) 33, [1997] 1 WLR 1447 (House of Lords)
• Bank of Scotland v Brunswick Developments (1987) Limited (No 2) 1999 SC (HL) 53 (House of Lords)
• Axis West Developments Limited v Chartwell Land Investments Limited 1999 SLT 1416 (House of Lords)
• Standard Commercial Property Securities Limited v Glasgow City Council 2007 SC (HL) 33, [2007] JPL 758 (House of Lords)
• Hamilton v McIntosh Donald 1994 SC 304
• Retail Parks Investments Limited v Royal Bank of Scotland (No 2) 1996 SC 227
• WWF UK Limited v Secretary of State for Scotland [1999] 1 CMLR 1021, [1999] Env LR 632
• Bett Properties Limited v Scottish Ministers 2001 SC 238
• Elmford Limited v City of Glasgow Council (No 2) 2001 SC 267
• Safeway Stores plc v Tesco Stores Limited and the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland 2004 SC 29
• Magnohard Limited v United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority 2004 SC 247, [2004] Env LR 19
• R (on the application of Friends of the Earth Limited) v Environment Agency [2004] Env LR 31
• R (on the application of Gregan) v Hartlepool Borough Council [2004] JPL 1088
• Scottish Power Generation Limited v Scottish Environment Protection Agency (No 1) 2005 SLT 98, [2005] Eu LR 449, [2005] Env LR 38; (No 2) [2006] Env LR 20
• Westbury Estates Limited v Royal Bank of Scotland 2006 SLT 1143
• FSH Airport (Edinburgh) Services Limited v City of Edinburgh Council 2007 CSOH 193
• Lerwick Port Authority v Scottish Ministers 2008 SLT 7
• Ben Cleuch Estates Limited v Scottish Enterprise 2008 CSIH 1
• Harris Superquarry Inquiry (1994-1995) and consequent application for judicial review (2001 SC 298, [2000] 4 PLR 151), and subsequent inquiry (2001)
• Strathclyde Tram Inquiry (1996)
• Gartcosh Power Station Inquiry (1997)
• Medway Cement Works Inquiry (re-opened inquiry, 2001)