April/May Update: High Court Appeal & Gordan D'Arcy

Belfast High Court found in favour of routing the A6 offline through this wetland at the end of March. It is a blow but by no means a knock out. The Aarhus Convention allows this case to be brought by an individual, a litigant in person. This international treaty, forged in the city of Aarhus, Denmark, and which the UK is a party to, empowers the public to gain access to information, decision-making and justice in matters concerning the environment. The March judgment came after six months of intensive legal argument which began in September 2016 following a Ministerial announcement in August to begin construction on the road. That August announcement was accompanied by the Government’s decision on the Article 6 Appropriate Assessment as required under EU laws stemming from the powerful Birds and Habitats Directives. This road scheme will result in the loss of functionally linked land, lead to degradation of a Northern Ireland priority habitat, cause significant disturbance to specially protected birds during and post-construction, cause fragmentation of the largest contiguous, lowland wet grassland east of the Erne-Shannon as well as exposing the largest freshwater SPA in these islands to many other risks. Everyone knows, only one thing follows a new dual carriageway: industry, houses and more roads, each one more intrusive than the last. In court, the Department for Infrastructure argued that the preferred route will not have any adverse impact in the long term because the site has yet to reach its carrying capacity and displaced swans will be accommodated in other fields through voluntary agreements backed by yet to be issued vesting orders, if necessary, as the Government accepts that it has no control over fields that are not in public ownership. These measures were to be in place prior to construction. However, a year into a working group having been set up, unacceptable uncertainty remains and no voluntary agreements are in place. The Department also argued that such measures are not part of a decision as required by EU law, merely a commitment to fulfill a promise made to the RSPB 10 years ago a few days prior to a Public Inquiry. Notwithstanding that this dual carriageway across Ireland’s most important site for wintering swans and the UK’s third ranked site for Whooper swans has not yet been built, it was also argued that swans are not troubled by roads, that its people not vehicles that cause disturbance. Environmental Information Regulations requests have provided evidence that the strict procedure so carefully considered when drafting the Habitats Regulations has been circumvented. Devolved Government allows the NI Department for Infrastructure (DfI) to be the regulator, proposer, developer, assessor as well as the competent authority, all in one. In other words, the DfI has given itself permission to build a road across a floodplain through which a joint Iceland-WWT study of marked birds indicates two thirds of the entire Icelandic Whooper Swan flyway will pass. This wetland is far too important to give up fighting for. Chris Murphy will submit his appeal in early May. If necessary this will go all the way to the European Court of Justice. The legal framework is all there together with the effective and supportive bureaux of the Aarhus and Ramsar Conventions. Gordon D’Arcy who wrote the wonderful ‘Birds at Lough Beg’ book in the late 1970s is coming to Seamus Heaney centre on Saturday 10 June. His performance is about the Burren where he now lives and works and how it inspired Seamus Heaney’s ‘Postscript’. He has been supporting the protection of the Toome swanfields and the integrity of this internationally important wetland for many years, for example by running a Lough Beg wildlife painting workshop for children at an A6 awareness raising summer fete in Moyola Park and an art exhibition in Castledawson, dedicated to this inspiring wetland. Another performace worth making the trip to HomePlace for https://seamusheaneyhome. ticketsolve.com/shows/ 873571252