Protesters opposing the £700m Birmingham northern relief road return to court in London this afternoon to renew their legal challenge, claiming that consent for the road plan was unlawful.
The Alliance against the Birmingham Northern Relief Road, together with eight individuals took Environment Secretary John Prescott and Midlands Expressway Ltd (MEL) to the High Court in 1998. However, they failied in their attempt to quash orders giving the go-ahead for the proposed 27-mile, privately-owned toll road, which is aimed at easing traffic congestion around the northern and eastern sides of Birmingham.
They will argue before Lord Woolf MR and Aldous and Buxton LJJ that last year’s decision by Latham J, when he held that Mr Prescott had not overstepped the legal mark in granting consent for the road, was wrong. Latham J had said that he considered that Mr Prescott had adopted a “perfectly lawful policy” in granting consent.
But the Alliance – a coalition of residents organisations along the route, backed by environmental groups and local councils – claim that Mr Prescott had acted illegally, because he had allowed himself to be influenced by immaterial factors in reaching his decision.
Those factors, they say, included costs that would have to be paid by the government if the concession agreement with MEL were cancelled.
Additionally, they claim that Mr Prescott had failed to use his powers to regulate the toll that MEL can charge.
PLS News 23/2/99
