A Bill currently going through parliament is designed by the
government to allow them to block judicial review cases.
Why should we be interested? And why is the government so
concerned to get control over judicial review cases?
Judicial review is one way that ordinary people can
challenge decisions by government through the courts. It has come to be used as
campaigning tool. In Canterbury a group opposed to an out of town college
campus used judicial review to slow down the development. Eventually the
College gave up and did what the campaigners had asked for from the start –
they redeveloped their existing town centre site preserving one of East Kent’s
last orchards and keeping the college close to public transport links.
Judicial review was used by the Save Port Meadow Campaign in
Oxford to challenge the City Council’s appalling planning decision to allow
over sized blocks of flats at Roger Dudman Way to block the famous views of the
dreaming spires from the River Cherwell.
However, the House of Lords has opposed the government and
amended the Bill to keep the discretion of the courts.
Ironic that we have to rely on this unelected, undemocratic institution
to prevent the government form bypassing democratic accountability.
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