BARD's legal challenge - new appeal

Just got this from the BARD Campaign, fighting the proposed eco town at MIddle Quinton, but doing so by fighting the whole eco town policy! Which definitely helps us!

"The BARD Campaign today lodged an application with the Court of Appeal, seeking permission to appeal the ruling by Mr Justice Walker dated 27 January 2009 that the Government’s consultation on its April 2008 shortlist document: “Eco-towns Living a Greener Future” was lawful.
In summary, BARD’s application contends that:
1. the principle of eco-towns was not properly and lawfully consulted upon in the Housing Green Paper. There was no genuine consultation on the eco-town policy since the policy had already been determined;
2. the Government pledged there would be a consultation on the eco-towns principle and broke this promise;
3. the key criteria for eco-towns were not properly and lawfully consulted on;
4. the errors in the early consultation stages cannot be rectified by any improvement to future consultation that would be based on a pre-determined principle.
5. the failure to consult on the 42 sites rejected from the April 2008 shortlist was unlawful;
6. the Government has not provided adequate information to enable intelligent consultation on the proposed locations;
7. the eco-towns policies are subject to the requirements of the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive and the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004;
8. the Strategic Environmental Assessment should have begun by the “Eco-towns - Living a Greener Future” stage;
9. BARD’s application for disclosure should have been considered before the hearing of their substantial complaint since the materials requested were clearly relevant and could have helped BARD’s case.

This application will impact the eco-town programme timeframe as the Government has given BARD an undertaking that consultation on ‘Middle Quinton’ would close no sooner than six weeks after the outcome of the proceedings. The current consultation end date is 30 April 2009 (six weeks tomorrow) yet a decision from the Court of Appeal as to whether to grant leave to appeal could take several weeks.

David Bliss, Chairman of the BARD Campaign said:
“We were disappointed with Mr Justice Walker’s ruling. It can surely be beyond doubt that the information provided by the Government on eco-towns has been confused, flawed and inadequate, thereby making it impossible for ordinary members of the public to engage in serious consultation.
“It is regrettable that we now rely on the Court of Appeal for us to be given an opportunity to consult on the principle and key criteria for new environmentally-friendly affordable settlements. Local opinions should be heard.”