Debate effect of pumping out brine at Fleetwood on marine life and livelihoodsWe needed 10,000 signatures to receive an answer from the government. In the end we received nearly 3,000 which sadly wasn't enough. Thanks for all your support. Our petition can be found here.
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Petition to the EU Parliamentary Petitions Committee
ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION MAKING
The Development Consent Order was approved in July 2015. Local inhabitants are the ones who know the land best, who know it is not suitable and who have to live with the impacts of this decision.Many people had grave concerns but the only option that the local community had to appeal was through judicial review. A judicial review would have enabled us to appeal how the decision was taken but not the decision itself. There was a very short time period of 6 weeks for appeal and the costs of putting in an appeal were prohibitive for local people with no access to influential backers or time to fundraise to challenge what was a quick and unexpected decision for the whole community. In addition, people who bring a legal challenge unsuccessfully might face having to pay the costs of the winner, which could be even more substantial.
The UK government has trumpeted its policy of localism – empowering local communities and making planning more democratic. There have also been specific provisions introduced to ensure that local communities have the final say in onshore wind power developments. This, however, does not apply in nationally important infrastructure project, such as underground gas storage, which are linked to the government’s policy on gas which it has described as “central” to an energy secure future.
The residents of Preesall and Wyre now find themselves in the absurd situation of being able to have a final say in any onshore wind farm development that may be proposed in the area, but having no effective ability to appeal a decision to store 19 caverns of a hazardous substance, in land local people know to be unstable, that will have a significant impact on the environment and their communities, less than half a mile from their homes.
We wrote to the European Parliament Committee on Petitions in February 2016 to ask them to look into the judicial review procedures in environmental decision making in the UK as we believe it is unfair. A full text of the petition is here:
/uploads/7/5/5/2/75524523/annex_1_access_to_justice_in_environmental_decision_making_full_text.pdf
The UK of course voted to leave the European Union in June 2016 and the terms of our exit are still unclear. For now, the petition is being processed as we are currently still members of the EU.
We received notification in November 2016 that the issue is admissable. The Committee has requested that the European Commission conduct a preliminary investigation into the matter.
The UK government has trumpeted its policy of localism – empowering local communities and making planning more democratic. There have also been specific provisions introduced to ensure that local communities have the final say in onshore wind power developments. This, however, does not apply in nationally important infrastructure project, such as underground gas storage, which are linked to the government’s policy on gas which it has described as “central” to an energy secure future.
The residents of Preesall and Wyre now find themselves in the absurd situation of being able to have a final say in any onshore wind farm development that may be proposed in the area, but having no effective ability to appeal a decision to store 19 caverns of a hazardous substance, in land local people know to be unstable, that will have a significant impact on the environment and their communities, less than half a mile from their homes.
We wrote to the European Parliament Committee on Petitions in February 2016 to ask them to look into the judicial review procedures in environmental decision making in the UK as we believe it is unfair. A full text of the petition is here:
/uploads/7/5/5/2/75524523/annex_1_access_to_justice_in_environmental_decision_making_full_text.pdf
The UK of course voted to leave the European Union in June 2016 and the terms of our exit are still unclear. For now, the petition is being processed as we are currently still members of the EU.
We received notification in November 2016 that the issue is admissable. The Committee has requested that the European Commission conduct a preliminary investigation into the matter.