No right of appeal is human rights breach

No landowners’ coastal access right of appeal is human rights breach, says parliamentary committee as it backs CLA amendment

Parliament’s Human Rights committee today (Weds, 15 April) backed the CLA’s amendment on the Marine and Coastal Access Bill by saying that a lack of a right of appeal would breach landowners’ human rights.

The influential committee said in its report on the Bill that "we recommend that the Bill be amended in order to provide a right of appeal to an independent body".

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights went on: "We note that an amendment which would insert such a right of appeal into the Bill has already been proposed in the House of Lords. . . In our view this amendment would remove the incompatibility with Article 6 [of the] European Convention on Human Rights that we have identified and we recommend that the Government accept it."

CLA Deputy President William Worsley said: "The committee has recognised what the CLA has been saying from the outset on this issue: that landowners have the right to a fair hearing in which they can appeal against the line of the proposed route and any other aspects of it.

"We are extremely pleased about the committee’s statement today because it vindicates our call for fairness on behalf of our members."