Council use Public Money to "Crush" Protest Groups

The following letter was sent yesterday by Tory MP Struan Stevenson:

Franco Frattini
Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security,
The European Commission,
Rue de la Loi 200,
B-1049, Brussels

27th February 2008

I would like to raise with you a question arising under Article 6 (1) of the European Convention on Human Rights, echoed in Article 10a of EU Directive 85/337/EEC as amended, on the subject of citizens' access to 'justice at an affordable price'. The Article in question states that 'Any such procedure shall be fair, equitable, timely and not prohibitively expensive.' I am concerned that there has been a blatant attempt to defy this law within the judicial system of Scotland, where protest groups who campaign to save their communities from ugly windfarm developments are facing punitive legal costs.

A particular case which I would like to bring to your attention involves the Skye Windfarm Action Group (SWAG), who waged an energetic and commendable campaign against the decision by the power company AMEC and Highland Council to construct giant wind turbines on peatland at Edinbane in Skye. SWAG was denied legal aid and forced to fundraise to take their case to judicial review before the Scottish Courts. AMEC and Highland Council then successfully applied to the courts to bring the Hearing forward from June 2008 to October 2007, thus denying SWAG sufficient time to raise the necessary funds to compete effectively.

Following the comprehensive dismissal of SWAG's case by Lord Hodge in the Court of Session, who nevertheless sharply criticised AMEC's environmental statement as falling "far short of the ideal statement", Highland Council has now applied to the courts for an award of full costs against SWAG. This vindictive and malicious move can only be motivated by the desire to scare off other would-be protesters against future proposals to industrialise Scotland's landscape.

I believe that it is manifestly unfair vengefully to pursue a small community protest group in this way and I am certain that it is even in breach of EU law as cited above.

I do not believe that the ECHR can be so blatantly defied simply in order that Highland Council can inflict a punitive financial burden on this small community protest group "pour encourager les autres," as Voltaire said. I do hope that you may be able to insist on such community groups being given access to justice at an affordable price as the Directive intends.

STRUAN STEVENSON, MEP

A letter along the same lines appears on page 14 of the February 29th West Highland Free Press, with a news item on page 4.