Mr. Tom Flynn:

The difficulty is that Heather Hill was dealing with a different statutory provision. This has moved beyond the Heather Hill decision, which is of limited relevance in relation to that.

The removal of the cost-recovery mechanisms, that is, if you are an applicant and you are successful, you can recover costs, is a fundamental problem. Many of our members would be acting for applicants who would be either individuals, smaller residents associations or environmental NGOs. The difficulty is that these cases are very complex and require a large commitment for the lawyers involved. If there is no prospect of them recovering their fees, and this would be a unique provision, market forces will apply and people will find it difficult to get legal representation.