The Supreme Court has refused to grant LADACAN permission to appeal against the extraordinary way in which the Appeal Court dismissed our request for an extension of time, our request to appeal the High Court judgement permitting Luton Rising’s Development Consent Order (DCO), and our grounds of appeal.
The panel of Appeal judges said they “refuse the extension of time and thus refuse permission to appeal” and ended the session, without actually hearing the permission request or grounds of appeal. This left us feeling that justice had not been served, and did not actually resolve the substance of our appeal against the massive expansion of Luton Airport. However, the Supreme Court assessors have decided “the application does not raise an arguable point of law”.
We believe our underlying case against the Secretary of State remains strong: the approval of near-doubling of capacity at Luton Airport unlawfully failed to properly assess its climate impact, in ways that matter for every major infrastructure project decision. But the government’s approach to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects is to fast-track them where possible. Last October the time limit for filing notice of an appeal against a High Court judgment supporting development was reduced to just 7 days.
The effects of man-made climate change are too serious now to ignore, and the heatwaves during the summer have demonstrated only too starkly that a continuing dependence on burning fossil fuels creates not just economic risk – the costs of damage caused by climate change are forecast to rise dramatically – but also existential risk not just to humans but to plants and animals as well.
Yet the people in power globally still pretend that their greenwash will save the day, whilst protecting the huge and powerful industries which lobby for “connectivity”. The issues are far bigger than just Luton Airport, and battles of the kind we have fought are being fought by people of conscience worldwide. Let us hope that in the end, the voices of reason prevail.