Great that St Pauls has written to Cllr Athwal re unlimited costs order

 Delighted to report St Pauls ahs written to Cllr Athwal re unlimited costs order per the letter below:

The Parish and Church of

St Paul’s Goodmayes

The Rev’d Janet Buchan

Vicar

Mr Jas Athwal

Leader of the Council

London Borough of Redbridge

21^st September 2022

Dear Mr Athwal

Re: Unlimited costs order in Walker v Redbridge Judicial Review

Andy Walker has contacted St Paul’s Goodmayes Parochial Church Council about the above case and forwarded some documents that have been sent to court.

These documents show that the Council accepts that this Judicial Review is an Aarhus Convention claim. Such claims are designed to allow ordinary members of the public to challenge government decisions involving concerns about the environment. As a consequence of the Arhus Convention seeking to protect the environment from Governments making damaging decisions, applicants’ costs should not be prohibitive. It is difficult to see how the Council’s application for unlimited costs should they win cannot be anything other than prohibitive.

Should the case proceed all the way to the Supreme Court the costs would be very high, forcing Andy to withdraw the claim now if the Council’s application is successful.

In order to protect the democratic process, and respect the views of those who feel strongly about the environmental consequences of the proposed development, we would be grateful if you would re-consider your Council application for unlimited costs.

Janet E. F. Buchan