Heathrow expansion judicial review hearings to begin in the Court of Appeal

On Thursday 17^th October the Court of Appeal (Lindblom, Singh and Haddon-Cave LLJ) will start hearing four appeals/applications for permission to appeal (C1/2019/1145, C1/2019/1154, C1/2019/1053, C1/2019/1056) against the decision of the Divisional Court (Hickinbottom LJ, Holgate J) to dismiss all the claims brought by way of judicial review against the designation by the Secretary of State for Transport of the Airports National Policy Statement: see Spurrier & Others v Secretary of State for Transport [2019] EWHC 1070 (Admin) and Heathrow Hub v Secretary of State for Transport [2019] EWHC 1069 (Admin). The four appeals/applications for permission to appeal raise the following issues:

1. C1/2019/1145 LB of Hillingdon & Others: Habitats and Strategic Environmental Assessment;
2. C1/2019/1056 Friends of the Earth: Climate Change;
3. C1/2019/1053 Plan B: Climate change;
4. C1/2019/1154 Heathrow Hub Limited: Competition law.

The appeals are due to last for 6 days. James Maurici QC, David Blundell, Andrew Byass and Heather Sargent are appearing for the Secretary of State in C1/2019/1145, C1/2019/1053 and C1/2019/1056. Richard Moules and Andrew Byass are junior counsel for the Secretary of State in C1/2019/1154. Richard Turney is appearing as junior counsel for Heathrow Airports Limited in all four cases. Charles Banner QC is appearing for Arora Holdings Limited in all four cases. Andrew Parkinson is junior counsel for Friends of the Earth in C1/2019/1056.