Mr Justice Dove has now made his order setting out why Ms Dawes’ request to appeal the dismissal of the Judicial Review has been denied.
Ms Dawes has 21 days from today (9 October 2023) to file an appeal with the Court of Appeal (to 30 October 2023).
Addressing each of the grounds for appeal in turn, the Judge emphasised again that there was no proper basis, within either of the grounds provided by Ms Dawes and her team, upon which permission to appeal could be granted.
Considering point 1(A), he said: “I am not satisfied that there is any arguable error in the judgment in respect of the failure to provide the supporting detailed documentation associated with the Azimuth Report. For the reasons set out in the judgment at paragraph 64 to 66 the requirements of fairness did not include the requirement to disclose this material…In relation to ground 1(B), there was no error in the judgment of the kind suggested in the construction of the Rule 19 and 20 of the Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010: that construction was, as explained in paragraphs 71 and 72 of the judgment, based upon both the headings and the provisions of the Rules and the different factual contexts which they addressed”.
The remaining three points within Ground 1, he concluded, were not arguable.
Turning to the second ground, which was the matter of the Government relying upon policies prepared for addressing net zero and the aviation industry, he noted that the Defendant (The Secretary of State for Transport) was entitled to rely upon new policies that were published after the Examining Authority’s report: “The reliance upon these policies did not sidestep the conclusions of the Examining Authority, which the defendant clearly had regard to, but they superseded those conclusions in the decision-making process.”
He also dismissed the argument that an appeal was merited on the grounds of this case being the first concerning the redetermination of a DCO.
Ms Dawes was also ordered to pay costs to The Secretary of State for Transport of £5,000.