New Armada Way legal fight goes to High Court today

Judge to decide on who pays costs

The latest legal tussle over Plymouth City Council’s decision to cut down trees in Armada Way reaches the High Court today. Action group Save the Trees of Armada Way (Straw) has brought the action alleging the authority breached terms of an injunction which prevented it felling all 129 trees in Armada Way in March 2023.

The council has stressed it will refute the allegations and has said it was disappointed to be hauled back before a judge, claiming it will cost taxpayers money. A preliminary civil hearing is due to take place today, which will determine whether the case can proceed to a full hearing.

Straw is also asking for costs of the judicial review to be capped. When an earlier judicial review case, into whether the council acted unlawfully when it ordered, was dismissed by the High Court in March, but the council was ordered to pay £35,000 towards Straw’s legal costs, which were capped at that amount by the Aarhus Convention, which enshrines public participation in decision-making and access to justice for environmental matters.

Straw said the council did not challenge the cost cap for the earlier hearing but this time has submitted costs which are higher than expected describing them as “wildly excessive”. Straw said the council would be looking to recoup the costs if Straw lost the case.

Straw has been raising cash for its legal bills via the CrowdJustice website. Already more than 1,100 people have made pledges amounting to more than £31,300.

In a statement, Straw said: “We are hoping that not only will we be granted permission for the case to be heard but the court will agree that, just as we were granted a cost cap for the judicial review, we should be allowed a cost cap to make going ahead with this case possible.

"For the judicial review we were granted a cost cap under the Aarhus convention, which is a way that enables environmental cases - ie for the good of us all - to not be prohibitively expensive for normal people to bring.”

Straw said it wanted costs decided in advance but the court had decided to consider the costs cap issue at today’s one-day hearing rather than in advance. The group said this means that by the time a decision is made, large costs will have already been incurred, and described this decision as “disappointing”.

The grounds for the current case are different to those of the earlier judicial review and revolve around the actions of senior council officers on the day the trees were cut down in March 2023. Straw is claiming the council interfered with the due administration of justice by impeding its ability to legally challenge the tree-felling decision.

Straw claims the council “implied” the decision to begin the tree-felling operation had not been signed, when it had. It claims the council only published the decision at about the same time the huge tree-chopping operation began, hampering attempts to obtain an injunction before trees were cut down.

It is also claiming the council did not ensure contractors stopped the tree destruction until between 18 to 35 minutes after it received the injunction. Straw believes this may have resulted in some trees being cut down during those vital minutes.

In its statement, Straw said it believes it is justified in bringing the legal action and said: “If there is a public interest in anything at all, surely it should be how officers who, are supposed to, work for the people, whose wages come from those same people’s taxes, behave and whether they are acting within the law or not. The consequence of public servants not being scrutinised is that they start to believe they are above their responsibility to the public and maybe even above the law.”

With an Independent Learning Inquiry to be held into the tree-felling decision, the council has said it is "frustrating” that Straw has continued its legal challenge. The council has said it intends to resist the application made to the court and refute the allegations.

The authority said continuous legal action is costing Plymouth taxpayers thousands of pounds and, with a new design for Armada Way decided on and work having actually started it is time to move on instead of “dwelling in the past”.

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