Another week, another failed Wild Justice court case. This afternoon the trio of Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay have seen yet another of their misguided legal challenges thrown out of court. Today’s challenge was a further application for a judicial review of The Heather and Grass etc Burning (England) Regulations 2021 after their last attempt to challenge Defra’s burning rules, in October.
Then, Judge Ian Dove dismissed all of the trio’s complaints as not ‘arguable’, and Wild Justice were ordered to pay £10,000 for wasting the court’s time – money which was then donated to the Gamekeepers Welfare Trust, no doubt to the fury of their donors.
Today, Mrs Justice Lang once again found that all of the group’s grounds for challenging the law were “unarguable”, and the court’s previous decision was upheld. The four organisations which had previously been granted "interested party" status – BASC, the Countryside Alliance, the Moorland Association, and the National Gamekeepers' Organisation – welcomed the decision.
A spokesman added: "It's a clear signal to Wild Justice that they should leave management of the countryside to those who do it in the most sustainable and bio-diverse manner."
But there is still the question of why, having wasted all of this time and money on the first challenge, Wild Justice would waste yet more of their supporters’ begging money on going back to court.
It just goes to show their arrogance in believing that they know better than anyone else about moorland matters and does raise significant questions over the legal advice they have been receiving from their lawyers, Leigh Day.
(©Birdlife)
The fact that moorland management benefits both wildlife – through the habitats it creates – and local communities through its use in preventing wildfires is something that they simply will not accept. They won’t accept the government’s decision; they won’t accept the arguments from people on the ground, who see on a daily basis the benefits that burning brings. The questions remain: does Wild Justice’s arrogance have no bounds, and when will they stop wasting the money they have begged from their credulous supporters?
It is little wonder both Avery and Tingay’s blogs of late have become increasingly defeatist as it is recognised that their largely agenda driven warped opinions on moorland management do not in fact reflect reality, or indeed the law.