| Topic: | Responses from WPCC and WBC | |
| Posted by: | Nicholas Evans | |
| Date/Time: | 27/11/12 09:14:00 |
| Martyn asked me if there was any news from the Conservators and the Council to the FoPC legal challenges sent to them earlier this month. Conservators: the full legal opinion from Philip Petchey was sent to the WPCC on the 7th of November, with the suggestion that they should not execute the easement (ie the agreement from February) signed with WBC and to reassess their position. No reply. On the 16th of November I sent a reminder, asking for a response. On the 19th of November I received the following reply from Gordon Vincent, their CEO: ********************* Dear Nick Re: Legal Advice sent to WPCC on 7 November 2012 Thank you for your recent email. I confirm receipt of your email to 7 November with the attached legal opinion. My understanding is, however, that your organisation had instructed Richard Buxton Solicitors to act on your behalf. I would be grateful if you could confirm whether this is still the position. Furthermore, as you are aware, the Conservators have instructed Gregsons to act in this matter so all correspondence should be addressed to them and not direct to the Conservators. Be that as it may, I can confirm the Conservators will be meeting with leading Counsel in order to go through your Counsel’s advice, after which I anticipate that leading Counsel will wish to settle a full reply to the same. Unfortunately our Counsel is currently involved in a substantial trial, and I understand from Gregsons, who have spoken to his clerk, it is most unlikely he will be able to deal with this matter before the week commencing 17 December 2012. I anticipate, therefore, that with Christmas and the New Year intervening, it is unlikely you will receive a substantial response from Gregsons until the beginning of the New Year at the earliest. I have copied Gregsons in on this letter and would be grateful if, in the future, you could address all further correspondence to them marked for the attention of Edmund Middlehurst. Yours sincerely, Gordon Vincent ******************* So it looks like they will not respond for quite a while yet. I hope therefore that they have not executed the easement. By the way our Barrister suggested we send them the opinion and we wanted to avoid Solicitors' costs for both parties, which is why we sent it directly to all Conservators. We've already spent many £thousands so far, so wanted to keep the costs down. However we are conscious of time passing and have been reassured by our legal advisers that this will not prejudice a future legal challenge if the WPCC does not withdraw from the agreement on the advice of their "leading Counsel", assuming he agrees with Mr Petchey and Mr Moys of have separately advised that building roads on the Common is unlawful. So we'll wait and see. The Council: the pre-application letter challenging the lack of an EIA was sent by our solicitor on the 13th of November, giving 14 days for a response. No reply yet, but the deadline only runs out today. Watch this space. Nick www.friendsofputneycommon.org |