(CMR) The Court of Appeal has refused to grant an application to the Central Planning Authority (CPA) to take its case for the rebuilding of a cabana and seawall on Boggy Sand Road to the UK’s Privy Council. The court said, “It is difficult to see why the further expenditure of public time and money is necessary.”
The National Conservation Council sought the court's intervention in 2021 after the Central Planning Authority granted approval for a project to rebuild a cabana and seawall on Boggy Sand Road despite the Council's objection.
In 2022, the Grand Court ruled that the Central Planning Authority (CPA) acted unlawfully when it approved the application to rebuild the cabana and seawall on Boggy Sand Road in West Bay.
The court said then that the National Conservation Act (2013) provides the National Conservation Council (NCC) with the ability to direct government bodies in circumstances where actions could have an adverse effect on protected areas or species.
The CPA appealed this ruling; however, in September 2023, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the NCC had the authority to instruct an entity (including the CPA) to refuse any action that may give rise to an adverse effect on a protected area or the critical habitat of a protected species if the adverse effects cannot be mitigated by conditions of approval as specified by the DoE on behalf of the NCC.
In this recent ruling, the Court of Appeal said the dispute was already resolved between the CPA and the National Conservation Council, with a clear explanation of the procedures to follow.
The Court of Appeal said the appeal did not dispute that the CPA's decision should be quashed but “was primarily concerned with the relationship between the powers and duties of the two public authorities, the CPA and the NCC.”
The judges also noted that there was no need for any further clarification of the powers of the National Conservation Council under the existing legislation.
In a separate ruling on costs, the Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s ruling that the Central Planning Authority pay the legal costs of the National Conservation Council.
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