7:58am Wednesday 28th July 2010
By Simon Carr
A BATTLE over a controversial £20m bus route is set to be fought out in the highest court in the land.
The fate of the proposed rapid bus transit between Fareham and Gosport could be in the hands of five Supreme Court judges.
It comes after resident Viv Morge, 58, who lives near the planned development and has called for work to be halted ahead of the new legal challenge, won the right to appeal.
She previously got injunctions to delay work on the Bus Rapid Transit scheme (BRT) when she took the case to the High Court and then the Court of Appeal.
However, her application to stop work on the development was refused and the court dismissed two of the three grounds on which she asked for leave to appeal.
Her solicitor Graeme Swain said: “The case will now be heard in the Supreme Court and could yet be referred to the European Court.”
The case involves complex arguments about what is meant by disturbance of habitats for protected species and how that relates to the European directives.
Mrs Morge, of Wych Lane, Gosport, has raised concerns about sleeping lizards and hungry bats in her fight to stop the work that will involve ripping up the derelict railway lines.
Hampshire County Council’s Executive Member for Environment and Chairman of Transport for South Hampshire, Mel Kendal, said: “We welcome the court’s decision not to grant an injunction and are very pleased that we can now effectively go ahead with building the BRT scheme.
“Although the judges have allowed the third ground of appeal, this is really in order to clarify a point of law for the future rather than any inherent problem with the BRT planning consent.
“This will have no direct impact on progress with the work.”
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