[registration_form]Wildlife trust issues proceedings in legal action against the government
The Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT)
have issued proceedings in the High Court regarding their challenge to the government’s choice of route for a new highway and associated homes in between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge.
The group sent a pre-action protocol letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, in September but did not receive a satisfactory response and have therefore commenced judicial review proceedings. They hope to receive a date for a judicial review hearing in the new year.
BBOWT are supported in their legal action by the national body the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, the River Thames Conservation Trust, the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust (BCNWT) and a number of local parish councils. Horton cum Studley Expressway Group, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Plantlife and RSPB have all supplied witness statements in support of the case.
The trust’s challenge relates to plans for a new Expressway, and associated homes, which is intended to increase connectivity between east and west and will contribute to significant growth in the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge region. The government ran a closed consultation on three options for the Expressway and on 12 September 2018 announced that it had accepted the recommendations of Highways England and had selected ‘Corridor B’.
The trust believes that the decision to choose Corridor B1 and B3 for the development was unlawful because Highways England failed to commission a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) or a Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA) as part of the process of selecting one of three Corridors.The trust also argues that Highways England’s lack of public consultation on the decision was in breach of Article 7 of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention).
As part of the closed consultation process the Wildlife Trusts made submissions to Highways England detailing their concerns about the potential environmental impact of the three Corridors and made it clear they considered Corridor B to be by far the worst option, containing 51 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), two internationally important Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and 234 local wildlife sites.
BBWOT have launched a fundraising campaign for the case via Virgin Money Giving.Estelle Bailey, CEO of BBOWT, said, ‘This is a campaign for environmental justice – for the sake of wildlife and people. The Expressway is a 20th century solution to a 21st century problem. Wildlife in this country is in serious trouble. Many species are in steep decline. The government has committed to leave the environment in a better state than they found it, but it is unclear how the expressway and its potential impact on protected habitats is compatible with this ambition. We welcome support from the public to fight this legal battle so wildlife habitats are not destroyed.‘.
Tessa Gregory, Partner at Leigh Day, said, ‘Our client has issued proceedings because it is deeply concerned by the failure of the Secretary of State to properly and lawfully consider the environmental effects of this important decision. The choice of corridor has wide ramifications not only because of the expressway itself but also because of the planned associated development in the area. The potential effects on wildlife are devastating. The public has the right to expect that large infrastructure decisions such as this will be subject to proper environmental scrutiny and full public consultation.‘.
ENDS
7 Replies to “BBOWT take to courts over massive development – press release from LeighDay”
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This is a pretty good illustration of how we are getting things wrong in England today. It follows exactly the same pattern as HS2. It reflects a growing problem in the Anglo world’s confrontational approach to law and decision making – best exemplified by the ‘we won’ attitude of Brexiteers to a vote which stretched first past the post beyond its limits. It is an approach which means everything takes forever and many are left dissatisfied at the end.
However, whilst Totally supporting BBWOT, as ever conservation is on the back foot, on the defensive. Its best outcome is evens – no chance of gain. With both HS2 and the Corridor I’d suggest we should be re-designing the whole landscape around the development to guarantee environmental gain – and that doesn’t mean planting a few trees several years down the line from the start of the dispute.
How about 100,000 hectares of restored habitat – out of the 250,000 recommended by the Natural Capital Committee. The land brought in as a condition of planning at 0.1 ha for each of the 1 million houses – and if it reduces the ‘take’ from the super lottery that is the planning system, is it the end of the world if the effective land value goes down from £1 million to £100,000 ? But how do you then develop and manage that land ? Just one house builder paid just one CEO £100m for his efforts – that’s £100,000/ hectare for 100,000 hectares. We can probably manage with that. What do you get from 100,000 has ? Doorstep access to the natural world for probably 5 million people, flood protection and clean drinking water, naturally treated runoff, non-vehicle transport routes – real off road walking and cycling, stacks of carbon saving, a bit of timber. All this along a line that could have been drawn just to highlight the spectacular loss of birds from our farmed landscape. Perhaps something like a real National Park ?
Thanks very much for publicising our challenge to the government over their selection of a corridor for the proposed Oxford-Cambridge Expressway and associated housing development. This is a big fight for a small organisation like us to take on but we’re determined to speak up for all the local wildlife that will be affected. All the support we get is really appreciated! We have put our own press release on our website which has details of other organisations supporting our challenge: https://www.bbowt.org.uk/news/bbowt-issues-claim-against-government-over-oxford-cambridge-expressway
Thanks very much too for including the link to our fundraising page.
Claire – well done and I’m happy to help with publicising such a good cause (and I donated £30)
Thanks very much for the publicity and the donation!
Mark, many thanks for publicising and supporting this initiative by BBOWT. No doubt you are reassured that they have chosen Leigh Day as advocates.
As long time members and supporters of BBOWT we have followed and welcomed the BBOWT involvement in this planning application. The whole project appears to be misconceived and as stated by Estelle Bailey “a 20th century solution to a 21st century problem”. You will recall, Mark, during your tenure at the RSPB, we fought off the planning attempts to route the M40 through the centre of Otmoor, which is now, of course a very valuable reserve for wildlife. The original plans for this development included a third option in corridor B, B2, which severely compromised the Otmoor Reserve and the surrounding lowland wet meadows. This option was removed following expressions of concern and was considered by many to have been included as a stalking horse that could be removed to assuage local objections. The two residual routes B1 and B3 have an equally damaging impact on the environment as stated in the legal action defined above.
As well as the proposed Expressway between Oxford and Cambridge, there are plans to re-juvenate the rail link between the two cities which runs almost parallel to the road. Many residents, including academics in the two cities, consider this to be a far better choice for connection.
As the legal action states, the BBOWT proceedings cite the lack of Strategic Environmental Assessment or Habitats Regulation Assessment and rightly so. There will be no opportunity to question any of these issues following the selection of the final route by the Government beyond very minor tweaks.
There is also a degree of blackmail involved by Government as the release of finance to achieve housing needs in the area is dependent on the acceptance of the Expressway. This has the effect of tying the hands of local authorities.
It is good to see the breadth of support that BBOWT has from other organisations and NGOs and we are aware that the RSPB has been helpful in advising on many aspects of the Judicial Appeal.
This is a national as well as local concern and I hope that others will join us in supporting the Crowd Funding appeal.
Richard and Lyn Ebbs.
Can’t do much, but if 100 people can do a little bit, then better then 1000 doing nothing!
Good luck to everyone involved with this. Two major legal challenges on the go now with the M4 and this one, calling out the government for ecocidal mania. Rebellion Extinction headed up by George Monbiot and Co would do well (in addition to targeting the government directly) to be focusing on these sort of projects/tangible targets, threatening swarming and civil disobedience if they go ahead and demonstrating around these issues rather than/ in addition to holding up traffic in London. Makes sense that in addition to causing disruption in London to also have a more focused approach involving tangible targets and raising profile around the next major projects which will be responsible for the next wave of extinctions.
This wave of civil disobedience to response to government inaction on biodiversity collapse and climate breakdown is a very important development in adding a new dimension to ending the war on nature and presumably the activists which are getting themselves imprisoned for this cause would welcome full support from the conservation establishment to promote their approach and integrate the activists into nationwide campaigns.