Court of Appeal denies Barbudans permission to take airport-construction case to the Privy Council
The Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal has refused permission for two Barbudans – activist John Mussington and Chair of the Barbuda Council Jacklyn Frank – to take a case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, this country’s highest appeal court.
The decision was handed down on Tuesday, October 19.
The duo was seeking conditional leave to appeal to the Privy Council, after the Court of Appeal upheld a High Court judgment that removed an injunction against the construction of an airport on Barbuda.
Barbudans are opposed to the project, because they allege that it was undertaken through an unlawful process on July 18, 2018.
A number of Barbudans alleged that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) submitted by the developers in November 2017 was seriously inadequate, according to Department of the Environment documents.
Additionally, Mussington has claimed that the lands on which the airport is being constructed were traditionally used by the island’s people for hunting, farming, and grazing, and were the habitat of the rare red-footed tortoise and the feeding grounds of the Barbudan fallow deer.
In August 2018 the pair were granted an injunction and leave to pursue a judicial-review case against the parties for breaching the Physical Planning Act, 2003.
