9:00am Saturday 30th January 2010
By Julian Robinson
A TOP judge has given the go-ahead for work to restart on a controversial £20m bus route linking two Hampshire towns.
The project, along a three-mile section of disused railway track between Fareham and Gosport, had been given the green light by planners last year.
The scheme was brought to a grinding halt when resident Vivienne Morge brought a High Court challenge claiming it would have a devastating impact on wildlife.
However, yesterday the Appeal Court in London allowed Hampshire County Council to carry on the work amid fears the authority could lose its massive Government grant.
Mrs Morge claims the planned route, if allowed to go ahead, would harm badger setts and the habitat of protected bat species that had found a safe haven in the vegetation alongside the abandoned railway.
She argued that the plan violated the EC Habitat Directive and domestic bat protection laws.
Mrs Morge, of Wych Lane, Gosport, initially lost her fight against the construction of the route when Mr Justice Walker dismissed her case on November 17 last year. However, on December 2, she was granted permission to appeal against that decision by Lord Justice Sullivan in the Appeal Court.
That resulted in a restraining order preventing the council from going ahead with works on the proposed route – other than minor exceptions – until after the appeal hearing, which is set for March.
James Findlay QC, for the council, applied to Sir David Keene, sitting in the Appeal Court, to vary that order and allow work to proceed, saying that the council stood to lose £20m in funding for the project if they wait until March to begin.
He told the judge that the construction of the route would take 15 months, and if not finished by the date of the funding deadline – March 31 next year – there was a “real risk” that the grant would be withdrawn.
Sarah Sackman, for Mrs Morge, claimed that the council was “exaggerating”
the time estimate for the works to be completed and also argued they could apply for an extension to the funding deadline.
But Sir David allowed the council’s application and varied the restraining order.
He said: “There is unlikely to be an impact on badgers or bats, other than a loss of foraging habitat, which will be very small.
“The loss is unlikely to have any significant impact on bats. The balance of convenience is clearly in favour of granting the variation now applied for.”
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