Tag: Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland

Scottish planning reform campaigners take their case to the United Nations

Environmental and community campaigners have urged a top UN body to intervene in Scotland’s planning system, after repeated calls for equal rights of appeal have been ignored by the Scottish Government.

Campaigners from Planning Democracy, Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland and RSPB Scotland, have submitted a formal complaint to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (ACCC), a UN body tasked with upholding environmental rights.

The complaint argues that planning appeal rights in Scotland are not ‘fair’ and therefore in breach of international law on access to justice for the environment.  They point to a ruling by the Committee in Northern Ireland concluding that a lack of equal rights was in breach of the Convention, and argue that similar recommendations must now be applied to Scotland to spur reform.

The appeal to the UN follows over a decade of civil society campaigning and the passage of two planning bills, both of which failed to address the issue. An amendment proposing to introduce equal rights of appeal under the 2019 Planning (Scotland) Act was voted down by SNP and Conservative MSPs.

Currently, only applicants (usually developers) enjoy appeal rights if planning permission is refused.

Members of the public and NGOs do not enjoy equivalent rights to appeal if a development is approved, even if the development will negatively impact on health and the environment, or if the decision-making process was flawed.

The only option available to affected communities and individuals is to go to court via a judicial review, which the Convention’s governing bodies have already ruled is ‘prohibitively expensive’.

Campaigners are calling for the Scottish Government to introduce legislative reforms to achieve equal rights of appeal.

Clare Symonds, Chair of Planning Democracy, said; “Giving communities rights of appeal is about justice and fairness.  It should be a given that decisions that fundamentally affect our future and the environment can be contested by those who will be most affected.

“It is clear that the Aarhus Compliance Committee’s Northern Ireland ruling agrees with our perspective that for developers to have right to challenge a decision at no cost, when communities have no such privilege, is unfair and a breach of international law on environmental decision-making.

“The situation regarding appeal rights in Scotland is the same and we expect the ACCC to find in our favour and hold the Scottish Government to account.”

Benjamin Brown, Policy & Advocacy Officer at Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, said: “As it stands, Scotland’s planning system is rigged in favour of developers.

“Through ignoring calls to introduce Equal Rights of Appeal in planning decisions, the Scottish Government has missed a vital opportunity to empower communities and protect our environment. It must now act to reform the planning process, so that communities impacted by poorly considered planning decisions can have their voices heard.

“As we work towards including the right to a healthy environment in the new Human Rights Bill, equal rights in planning cannot be forgotten.”

Mary Church, Head of Campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “It’s an absolute scandal that communities and NGOs can’t appeal against developments that harm the environment, while developers can wage a war of attrition through appeals and repeat applications if their proposal gets knocked back.

“This lack of equal rights undermines the planning system and leads to decisions that are bad for people and planet. The Scottish Government shouldn’t wait for the UN to rap its knuckles again, but should take action to level the playing field as part of its agenda to enshrine human rights in Scots Law.”

Aedan Smith, Head of Policy and Advocacy at RSPB Scotland, said: “It is essential that individuals and communities have the ability to challenge harmful decisions, especially those that would make the nature and climate emergency worse.

“We would hope that this ability would not need to be used very often, but it is important that decision makers can be held to account in a way that is fair.”

Scottish Government Environmental Justice Plan ‘woefully inadequate’

Environmental NGOs have branded a UK and Scottish Government Action Plan to deliver on environmental rights ‘woefully inadequate’.

The groups have written to a key UN body to express their concern about a lack of concrete commitments to reform the legal system to help people defend the environment.

The Action Plan was requested by the United Nations Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee which has repeatedly found the UK to be in breach of the Convention’s access to justice requirements.

In October 2021 the Meeting of Parties to the Convention made a set of recommendations and requested an Action Plan from the UK Government detailing how it will, ‘as a matter of urgency …ensure that the allocation of costs in all court procedures subject to Article 9 [which deals with access to justice] be made fair, equitable and not prohibitively expensive’.

The Scottish Government is obliged to ensure that Scotland’s legal system is compliant with the Convention and contributed to this Plan.

The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland and RSPB Scotland analysis of the submitted action plan, reveals that the measures outlined by the Scottish Government will fail to ensure access to justice by the deadline of October 2024.

Environmental campaigners are calling for the Scottish Government to make a clear commitment to fully implement the UN’s recommendations by the deadline.

Shivali Fifield, Chief Officer at ERCS, said: “We welcome the Scottish Government’s acknowledgement that access to justice on environmental matters is prohibitively expensive.

“Yet this is not matched with concrete legal and policy reforms. We believe that fundamental changes to the legislative framework are required and the government must now stop dragging its feet and fully implement the Committee’s recommendations.”

Mary Church, Head of Campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “This is a woefully inadequate response to a decade of rulings that the Scottish Government is in breach of international law for its failure to ensure access to justice for the environment.

“With no concrete commitments to actually reform the system and make legal action more affordable this is an action plan in name only.

“As we face the unprecedented challenges of the climate and nature emergency, it’s more important than ever that people act to protect the environment including going to court where necessary, and they should not have to face impossible costs in doing so.

“The Government’s pledge to enshrine the right to a healthy and safe environment in Scots law will be meaningless if it is not possible for individuals, communities and NGOs to enforce these rights in court. An overhaul of the courts to remove barriers to public interest litigation, and ensure Aarhus Convention-compliant standards of access to justice for the environment, is long overdue.”

Aedán Smith, Head of Policy & Advocacy at RSPB Scotland, said: “We continue to lose nature in Scotland and around the world and Scotland is already one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries.

“The Scottish Government has taken some welcome steps to improve matters and have committed to reverse biodiversity loss and create a ‘nature-positive’ world by 2030. However, to ensure this commitment becomes more than just warm words it is essential that concerned citizens are not prevented from challenging potential illegality in the courts.

“The Scottish Government must take urgent action to address this failing.”