Public Consultation on General Scheme of the Housing and Planning and Development Bill 2019

In our response to this consultation we outlined concerns over proposals to restrict access to justice on environmental matters, especially in at time where there is a need to face up to tackling issues in a maintaining biodiversity and tackling the ‘climate crisis’.  We suggest that a more appropriate solution is to establish a separate Planning and Environmental Division of the High Court which would have dedicated specialist judges to deal with technical and complicated matters of law on planning and environmental issues.