Judicial Review Granted

We are very pleased to announce that Mrs Justice Lang has granted permission for Judicial Review. She has agreed we have an arguable case all grounds. At the end of the Order she says:

‘In my view, the Claimant’s grounds are arguable and merit consideration at a full hearing’.

The Order sets out the timetable for the case – The Council and the City of London now have to file and serve detailed grounds and any written evidence within 35 days of service of the Order; that takes us to 18 March 2021. We then have 21 days to file a Reply and any further evidence. The Court will now be looking to list this matter for a 2 day substantive remote hearing. The Court has also confirmed that this is an Aarhus Convention claim so that costs, should we loose, are limited to £5K We have built up a firm foundation of supporters and we are building momentum. We are building a website which will give the history of the area and the woods as well as host updates, and have a link to the CJ page. This should help engage the media and people further afield. We have had a few days respite from fund raising. We will now need to set a target of £35k to reach the costs of preparing for court and the hearing itself. We are researching now whether it is better to do this in one fell swoop or in stages, and will let you know. In the meantime we wanted to share the news, and of course, need to raise money either way. A community felt there was an injustice, a solicitor confirmed this was probably the case, a QC confirmed with his opinion and now, a Judge says we have an arguable case. Our strength is the sense of injustice against the community, we were not heard.

Please do continue to share the CJ page with all family, friends, and social media platforms you have.