The Court of Appeal (Auld, Rix and Maurice Kay LJJ) [2006] EWCA Civ 877 dismissed an appeal by Mr Edwards against the judgment of Lindsay J. who had refused judicial review of a decision of the Environment Agency to grant a PPC consent.
The case concerns the legality of a trial burning of tyres as a partial substitute fuel at Rugby Cement Works and concerns the operation of the PPC permitting regime and its interface with the requirements of environmental impact assessment. The case was heard over 3 days in February.
The Court held that the trial burning of shredded tyres did not require environmental impact assessment and did not fall within the projects which required assessment. Although there had been a breach of the requirements of fairness with regard to the failure to make available an internal report on dispersion modelling, the Court agreed with the trial judge that the Court should exercise its discretion not to quash the decision in the circumstances.
David Elvin QC acted for the Respondents - the Environment Agency, Defra and ODPM (now DCLG).
