Help Us Defend our High Court Case: Protect Our Homes, Rights and Environment

We are a community standing together to fight for real action on climate change, environmental protection, human rights and the rule of law, all of which have been threatened by the proposed new A5 dual carriageway.

Our High Court Case

In June 2025, after many years of determined effort, we achieved a major legal result. On 23 June 2025, the High Court in Belfast (King’s Bench Division, [2025] NIKB 42) ruled in our favour — finding that the Department for Infrastructure’s decision-making process for the A5 scheme was unlawful.

A Landmark Judgment for Climate Change

This was a landmark judgment, confirming that government must act lawfully and rationally in its approach to addressing climate change pursuant to the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.

The Court recognised the importance of lawful and responsible decision-making in light of the climate emergency and the Department’s climate obligations. The Judge concluded that, in the absence of an approved Climate Action Plan, the Department needed to provide the Court with cogent evidence demonstrating that the project would not undermine the interim and net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets laid down by the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 and that it had failed to do so.

The Environment

The Court also found that the Department had breached the domestic environmental impact assessment regulations by failing to provide the public with new and important environmental information that it had produced in relation to the GHG emissions arising from those travelling in the Republic of Ireland en route to the new A5; so as to give the public the opportunity to consider that information and comment upon it and the methodology underlying it.

Human Rights

Importantly, the Court concluded that the Department had also failed properly to consider the Planning Appeal Commission’s recommendation that any decision to proceed should be time limited – and to consider the impact of the project on the human rights of those impacted by the decision to proceed with the new A5. 

The Department’s Appeal

Despite the Judge’s clear and carefully reasoned ruling, the Department for Infrastructure has now appealed his judgment to the Court of Appeal. This means that our community — who were vindicated in the High Court — must once again raise funds to defend the Judge’s ruling and ensure that justice is upheld.

Our Goal

We urgently need to raise funds to cover the legal costs of defending the High Court judgment before the Court of Appeal in Belfast. Our legal team, consisting of Marc Willers KC and Acland Bryant BL of Garden Court Chambers and Ciaran O’Hare Solicitor of McIvor Farrell Law Firm will continue to work at reduced rates, and are busy preparing our case which we hope will persuade the Court of Appeal to uphold the judgment of the High Court and ensure that the Department gives proper consideration to the impact of the project on climate change, the environment and our human rights.

This next stage is crucial: if the Department’s appeal succeeds, the destructive dual carriageway could go ahead, without proper consideration of its destructive impact on the environment and the lives of those directly affected by the project. If we successfully defend the High Court’s ruling, it will stand as a powerful precedent protecting communities, human rights, and the environment across Northern Ireland.

How You Can Help

Every contribution, large or small, helps us to:

•    Protect the climate; 

•    Protect the environment; 

•    Protect people’s human rights; 

•    Uphold the rule of law.

Once again, this is a David and Goliath battle — but we have already shown that justice and community resolve can prevail.

Please help us defend our High Court case and ensure that the voices and rights of our community are not silenced.

Together, we can ensure that the Government’s climate change duties are not watered down and we may also be able to protect this beautiful part of Northern Ireland — for present and future generations.

Thank you for standing with us.