We informed you just before Christmas 2025, that LADACAN had applied for a right to Appeal against the decision made in the High Court, that the Luton Airport Development Consent Order was lawful.
We have just been given the good news, that LADACAN has been granted a 2-day “rolled-up hearing” at the Court of Appeal, where their application to Appeal the High Court Dismissal of the case against, Luton Airport Expansion and the grounds of the Appeal itself, will be considered.
During the hearing in May (either 19/20th or 20/21st), the Court of Appeal will also consider the opposing arguments made by the Secretary of State and by Luton Rising.
Their Application to Appeal itself was, inadvertently, submitted a few days late because the LADACAN Legal Team fell foul of a recent change by Government aimed at speeding up the appeals process. Last October, the timeframe for signalling the intention to appeal a High Court DCO ruling was reduced to just 7 days.
Nevertheless, the assessing Judge has indicated that the merits, or otherwise of the Appeal need to be considered because they raise relevant Points of Law. So, the upshot of all this depends on what the Court decides.
At best, if everything goes in LADACAN’S favour, there will be a need to raise just £7,000 more funds to cover costs, and Luton Rising may need to redo relevant parts of its Environmental Impact Assessment. At worst, if LADACAN lose that figure would be an additional £10,000 on top of that to cover adverse costs – but that won’t be known until after the rolled-up hearing in May.
Either way, if the ruling leads to clarifications of Environmental Planning Law, those will apply to other Airport Cases going forwards.
Anti-airport Expansion groups, both locally and nationally, are working towards achieving success, and are grateful for the support given so far.
In due course, LADACAN will re-launch Crowdfunding to cover the additional amounts. We will reissue those details when they outcome of the Court Case is known.