A YORK law firm has doubled the size of its agriculture and landed estates department with a surge of appointments to meet demand from the sector.

There are now eight staff within the department at Lupton Fawcett Denison Till's York office after Jessica Richardson, Hannah Farmer, Niamh Batterton and Fiona Gibson joined the team.

As well as providing legal advice and help across all areas of farming and landed estates, including sale and purchase, tenancies, easements and rights of way, the team also has expertise in solar and wind projects as well as dealing with developers. Clients include Castle Howard and Bramham Estate.

The most recent addition to the team is Hannah Farmer, who has returned to her home city of York having moved to a Shropshire-based law firm four years ago where she specialised in all areas of agriculture and rural affairs.

Speaking about the new recruits, director of Lupton Fawcett Denison Till, Johanne Spittle, said: "Thanks to our strong track record, we are currently rated as one of the top agriculture and estate teams in Yorkshire and the Humber by the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners.

"We are therefore keen to build on this reputation and are delighted to have attracted such high calibre and experienced practitioners to the firm.

"We recognise the need to run farms and estates as businesses, without losing sight of the fact that many are also homes; commercial objectives have to be balanced against protecting a way of life and local reputation."