The Government must produce new air quality plans straight after May's local elections after ClientEarth challenged the environment department's contention that its response to a court ruling that its plans were illegal could wait.
Mr Justice Garnham ordered the Government to produce draft plans in time to finalise the plans by the end of July. Ministers had wanted to wait until September. ClientEarth CEO James Thornton said: "We cannot afford more dither and delay. They need to get on and produce their plans to bring down air pollution as soon as possible. This is a matter of public health." The ruling is seen as requiring a nationwide network of low emission zones.
ClientEarth won its second legal battle against the government over air pollution in November 2016 when Judge Garnham ordered ministers to produce draft plans by 24th April. The Government claimed that the general election purdah period meant that they could not publish their draft plans for consultation until after the General Election on 8 June.
However, when pressed by the judge, the government’s Counsel said he could not give the court a “guarantee” that delaying the draft plan past the general election would not have an impact on the implementation of measures to reduce air pollution as soon as possible, ClientEarth said.
The judge did accept that purdah rules would affect local elections but would not influence the final publication date for plans that he set in his ruling in November of last year, a point which ClientEarth accepted.
