{"id":12948,"date":"2015-05-12T14:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T14:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=12948"},"modified":"2015-10-08T12:57:24","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T12:57:24","slug":"aarhus-cost-cap-protection-still-applies-to-local-authorities-court-of-appeal-rules-in-high-profile-hs2-case","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=12948","title":{"rendered":"Aarhus cost cap protection still applies to local authorities, Court of Appeal rules in high-profile HS2 case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"aarhus-cost-cap-protection-still-applies-to-local-authorities-court-of-appeal-rules-in-high-profile-hs2-case-2\"<\/p>\n

Ref. HS2AA and LB Hillingdon v Secretary of State for Transport [2014] EWHC 2759<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At High Court level, the Claimants argued that the Defendant (SofS for Transport) acted unlawfully in using statutory powers to make safeguarding directions for Phase 1 of HS2. In particular, they claimed that safeguarding directions ought to have been assessed under the regime for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in Directive 2001\/42\/EC. The Secretary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to do so, in their opinion, rendered them unlawful and liable to be quashed.<\/h3>\n

The claim concerned the proposed High Speed Two railway (HS2) which is, in the Government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s view, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the most significant single transport infrastructure project in the UK since the building of the motorways<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. That is how the project is described in the Command Paper \u00e2\u20ac\u0153High Speed Rail: Investing in Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Future \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Decisions and Next Steps\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (2012).<\/p>\n

In its scale and purpose, writes Mr Justice Lindblom, HS2 recalls the great schemes of railway expansion promoted in the 19th century.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most interesting facet of this case, however, concerns the influence of the Aarhus Convention of costs and the judgement of the Court of Appeal, made after leave was granted by Mr Justice Lindblom to take the matter further.<\/p>\n

At present, the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) provide that, for Aarhus Convention claims (claims which relate to the environment including environmental impact assessment and habitat regulations claims), a claimant cannot be ordered to pay over \u00c2\u00a35,000 (where the claimant is an individual), or \u00c2\u00a310,000 (for all other claimants), as liability for the other side\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s costs.<\/p>\n

The Aarhus Convention\u00c2\u00a0has been ratified by the European Union and the United Kingdom and contains three pillars:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Access to environmental information held by public authorities.<\/li>\n
  2. Participation in environmental decision-making by the public.<\/li>\n
  3. Access to justice in environmental matters, which includes procedures to challenge decisions in a manner which is timely and not prohibitively expensive.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The High Court held that the Aarhus cap did <\/em>apply to local authorities, which acts to partially mitigate the longstanding concerns of the European Commission and United Nations Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (Compliance Committee) about the costs of bringing environmental claims in the UK courts. By capping the cost claims, claimants are encouraged to bring action.<\/p>\n

    The Secretary of State, in appealing against that High Court costs ruling, sought to argue that the benefit of the costs cap was dependent on the claimant being a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153member of the public concerned<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from articles 2 and 9 of the Aarhus Convention, and that LB Hillingdon instead came within a separate mutually exclusive definition of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153public authority\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in article 2.<\/p>\n

    Nevertheless, the Court of Appeal held that, once it has been resolved that the claim is an Aarhus claim, further recourse to the Aarhus Convention itself is unnecessary. Further definitions of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpublic concerned\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpublic authority\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 therefore do not hold sway and the cost caps apply.<\/p>\n

    The decision is a boost for Councils across the country who will continue to be able to appeal against planning and infrastructure decisions with limited financial risk. It is not necessarily permanent, however, as the Compliance Committee will convene later in the year to reach a decision on the aspect that the Court of Appeal declined to \u00e2\u20ac\u201c interpreting the terms \u00e2\u20ac\u0153public authority\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153public concerned\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in articles 2 and 9 of the Aarhus Convention, and deciding definitively whether local authorities can be part of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153public concerned\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as well as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153public authority\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

    If LPAs are<\/em> categorised as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpublic authorities\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 only, the Minister for Justice will be able to amend the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) to exclude them from the cost cap. We await the Compliance Committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision with interest.<\/p>\n

    www.PropertySurveying.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

    SRJ \u00c2\u00a009.05.15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ref. HS2AA and LB Hillingdon v Secretary of State for Transport [2014] EWHC 2759 At High Court level, the Claimants argued that the Defendant (SofS for Transport) acted unlawfully in using statutory powers to make safeguarding directions for Phase 1 of HS2. In particular, they claimed that safeguarding directions ought to have been assessed under … Continue reading “Aarhus cost cap protection still applies to local authorities, Court of Appeal rules in high-profile HS2 case”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"folder":[],"class_list":["post-12948","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nAarhus cost cap protection still applies to local authorities, Court of Appeal rules in high-profile HS2 case - Property Surveying NEWSLETTER<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Following an extended High Court and Court of Appeal battle it has finally been decided that the Aarhus Convention cost cap does apply to Local Authorities.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propertysurveying.co.uk\/newsletter\/?page_id=12948\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aarhus cost cap protection still applies to local authorities, Court of Appeal rules in high-profile HS2 case - 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