The shocking cost of defending Wild Justice’s failed attack on the General Licences in Wales has been exposed, and highlights the mismanagement of funds that could have been used towards conservation efforts.
The anti-shooting campaign group brought the action in the hope of having the licences declared ‘unlawful’ by the court thereby forcing their withdrawal. However the Judge rejected all of the group’s claims. In a subsequent costs order the group were ordered to pay £10,000, the maximum allowed under the Aarhus convention.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) explained that they were unable to calculate the full cost of defending the action due to the number of staff hours that were spent on it, however the external legal advice they needed and their court representation took £145,000 away from the Agency’s efforts to protect the Welsh environment.
Welsh game shot and wildfowler Gethin Jones was furious at the waste of money, remarking; “This sum represents a massive and totally unnecessary expense for what is well-known to be a cash-strapped Welsh government agency. The action brought by Wild Justice achieved absolutely nothing in terms of conservation value and the minor clarification concerning the Welsh GLs could just have effectively been achieved by a simple, and cost-free, exchange of emails. This expense will be nothing but detrimental to conservation in Wales.”
BASC Wales Director Steve Griffiths agreed with Gethin. He commented: “BASC stated from the star
