Press Release
5 December 2006
New Regulations treat Planning Objectors like Terrorists
A seminar in Leeds later this week will hear that new planning regulations that came into force last June will allow nuclear objectors to be excluded from public inquiries into nuclear developments.
The Attorney General has been given powers to appoint government security vetted special advocates to represent objectors but these advocates will be prohibited from sharing information with their ‘clients’.
Concern about this extraordinary clamp down on objectors is likely to be reinforced today with the publication of the Barker Review of Land Use Planning. It is expected to say that controversial projects like nuclear power stations and incinerators should be decided by independent planning commissions – not democratically elected planning authorities.
Jamie Woolley, Legal Adviser to the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA)[1], will tell an audience of councillors and officers at an NFLA seminar on Friday that the new planning regulations have been modelled on practice at court hearings involving alleged terrorists held at Belmarsh Prison. No longer will objectors have the right, for example, to examine nuclear safety information at a planning inquiry.
Jamie Woolley says:
“These new regulations do not yet apply to inquiries into new reactor
construction but it is very likely that they will if, in time, plans for
new nuclear stations reach the planning inquiry stage. Inevitably a question
arises about the compatibility of these new arrangements with Article 6
of the European Convention of Human Rights.”
The NFLA seminar will also be informed that Government proposals to remove from new nuclear station planning inquiries any discussion of need, health or safety, and limit investigation to narrow local issues, effectively disempowers local communities and squashes a long standing right that provides for local democratic accountability and proper public scrutiny.
The NFLA Seminar takes place between 10am –1.00pm on Friday 8 December in Leeds Civic Hall. Local authority delegates from across the UK and Ireland will be attending. Other speakers include the Liberal Democrats Energy Spokesperson, David Howarth MP; leading nuclear energy policy analyst, Dr Bridget Woodman, University of Warwick; and Prof Brian Clark, Committee on Radioactive Waste Management.
Press and media representatives are invited to attend and report on this event.
ENDS
1. Nuclear Free Local Authorities is a growing network of councils across, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland campaigning to reduce nuclear hazards and increase public and environmental protection.