Day Ten - Another Failed Court Case
Wild Justice seem to determined to draw out the legal process, and their supporters funds, even when defeat is all but assured. Are they getting poor legal advice, or do they just like the attention? Who knows. However it is getting increasingly embarrassing for them.
At the start of this month the trio of Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay saw yet another of their misguided legal challenges thrown out of court. In this case, it was a further application for a judicial review of The Heather and Grass Burning Regulations 2021, after their last attempt to challenge Defra’s burning rules was dismissed in in October.
Just to refresh your memory on October’s events, Judge Ian Dove dismissed all of the Wild Justice’s complaints as not ‘arguable’, and they were ordered to pay £10,000 for wasting the court’s time – money that was then donated to the Gamekeepers Welfare Trust.
On December 1st, Mrs. Justice Lang once again found that all of the group’s grounds for challenging the law were still “unarguable”, and the court’s previous decision was upheld.
A spokesman for the ‘interested parties’ of the case – BASC, the Countryside Alliance, the Moorland Association, and the National Gamekeeper’s Organisation – added, "It's a clear signal to Wild Justice that they should leave management of the countryside to those who do it in the most sustainable and bio-diverse manner."
This hopefully means the issue has finally been put to rest once and for all. But the question remains of why, having wasted the court’s time and their supporters money on the first challenge, and been sanctioned for doing so, Wild Justice thought it was a good idea to do exactly the same thing again?
It demonstrates arrogance on their part, believing that they know better than the courts, flippantness towards their supporter’s generous support, and a bizarre inability to take no for an answer even when the truth is staring them in the face.
We sincerely hope they learn from their mistake second time around, although previous form doesn’t exactly fill anyone with confidence. Especially when they’re still yet to realise that moorland management is the only means of taking care of our uplands that creates habitats for wildlife and prevents wildfires.
However, we’re sure this series of Wild Justice fails leading up to Christmas has fallen on much less entitled ears, and reminds people not to be seduced by their warped opinions on land management that simply do not reflect reality, or the law.
We suggest for Christmas television viewing in the Wild Justice households they take a moment to watch this excellent short film, which might teach them a few realities about moorland management and driven grouse shooting.