https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/coe-disregarding-nature
We are launching a fresh fundraising campaign on CrowdJustice to help towards our legal costs involved with the Judicial Review application that was granted to us by the Court in February.
On top of the time and effort put in by key CAG members, we have sought out some incredible legal people to help us and have negotiated some amazing deals, BUT there still are some costs involved.
One more Big Push, one more small request.
This turning point, since outline planning permission was granted in December 2024, has been monumental for us, but in turn has required a monumental effort from our team – the court bundle alone was a staggering 1,183 pages and took thousands of combined hours from our small teams busy lives.
We are politely asking for donations, however small to meet the target of £6,000 for this expert preparation and representation.
Very few challenges in the UK make it as far we have.
While we have been fighting development on the Chidswell Fields since 2012, it is the progression of the development by the Church Commissioners and Kirklees Council through to gaining outline planning permission last year, that have led to this escalated response from us.
The planning decision itself was controversial at best and was only passed with a majority of just one vote! – The decision could have and SHOULD have been deferred.
Only 0.06% of planning applications out of hundreds of thousands annually are eventually challenged by Judicial Review, and despite all the effort and costs involved in even getting to the application stage, less than a third are then granted permission to proceed by the Court.
This means, that a Judge has already reviewed and passed forwards, our evidence, our findings and our arguments.
They have seen the merit in our concerns and have granted us the opportunity to put these points across, not just emotionally, but now legally.
A Very Real chance, we just need that help…
The reasons for the JR are clear.
The Church Commissioners and Kirklees Council have avoided and side-stepped the appropriate amount of scrutiny for a development this large and have taken as much of a wanton disregard for following the planning processes clearly & legally as they have for the nature they are hoping to destroy.
Now we have the opportunity to do so, we can prove with hard facts what damage this development will do to the natural habitats of so much wildlife, what harm it will do to the area and what potential for food security it will strip away from us and this time, they won’t be able to just look the other way.
Everything and anything will help…
Any size of donation will help. Whether it’s a single pound, £5 , £10 or £20 – it will all add up to cover these costs, which although could have been so much higher, we just can’t cover ourselves.
We are ever so grateful for everyones support until now and we are ever more grateful for anything you can give us for this.
Very best,
Team CAG