Your financial support matters to us more than ever. After a 2-day hearing in the Court of Appeal was truncated after just half a day without hearing the majority of our submissions, we are now having to appeal against what felt like a faulty process and a very questionable judgement.

Each step of the UK legal process costs money - not just the fees for the preparation of detailed legal submissions, but even with Aarhus cost-capping, £10,000 "adverse cost awards" if you lose at any stage.

That's where crowdfunding is so valuable. People all over the UK have supported this cause, and even if you can only afford £10-£20 or so it all adds up. So please invest a few minutes to make a donation and help us fight unconstrained airport expansion. Thank you all.

Some bad news for our supporters: having attended court on the first day of the expected 2-day rolled up Appeal hearing, we were very surprised that the court had apparently changed course from its initial direction on the papers. 

The original direction was to allow the parties a full two days to make the arguments for and against the lawfulness of the grant of development consent, as well as to hear an extension of time request. Instead, the court only allowed the parties half a day to make arguments over this initial procedural issue before deciding that the substantive arguments over the appeal could not go ahead. 

We are very disappointed - all parties had prepared for the hearing based on the clear indication from the court that it wanted to hear the main arguments in the case and not just the arguments on the procedural issue. 

We await the written explanation of reasons, meantime have suspended fundraising.

Thank you once again to everyone who has supported this important battle to try to ensure that the carbon impacts of big infrastructure projects like airport expansions are properly assessed.

Good news - we've been granted a 2-day “rolled-up hearing” at the Court of Appeal, where our application to appeal the High Court dismissal of our case against Luton Airport expansion, and the grounds of our appeal itself, will be considered. The Court of Appeal will also consider the opposing arguments made by the Secretary of State and by Luton Rising.

Our application to appeal was, inadvertently, submitted a few days late because our legal team fell foul of a recent change by government aimed at speeding up the appeals process. However, the merits or otherwise of the appeal will be considered because they raise relevant points of law. The implications for Luton Airport expansion and the Environmental Impact Assessment of similar projects will depend on what the Appeal Court decides.

Having raised sufficient to pay the legal costs to date, we are now pausing fundraising while we wait to hear whether or not we get permission to appeal against the High Court judgment that the massive expansion of Luton Airport can go ahead.

Huge thanks to everyone who has supported us so far.

The LADACAN team.

LADACAN's have lawyers filed our request for permission to appeal the High Court judgment which dismissed our case evidencing the unlawfulness of the Secretary of State's decision to permit massive expansion of Luton Airport.

The Supreme Court’s Finch ruling made it clear that all significant climate effects must be assessed, even if scientific methods are still developing.

Our grounds for appeal are:

- that the Judge erred in concluding that the climate impact of the greenhouse gas emissions had been assessed, whereas they hadn't been because of a faulty justification based on double-counting;

- that the Judge erred in concluding that the emissions from inbound flights had been assessed, despite asserting that meaningful assessment was not possible;

- that the Judge erred in concluding that the assessment of non-CO2 effects was lawful; and

- that the Judge erred in concluding that the Government's duties under the Climate Change Act amounted to a pollution control regime.

We are sincerely grateful for the wide support towards the cost of this action, which is essential to clarify the law on what amounts to an existential issue given the worsening effects of climate change and the imperative to achieve Net Zero by 2050.

The High Court has ruled in favour of the Secretary of State’s decision earlier this year to overturn the advice of planning inspectors and permit further massive expansion of Luton Airport.

The Luton Airport case is a watershed moment for the UK’s climate future. The government’s expert advisers have warned that we cannot meet Net Zero while continuing to expand airports on the basis of partial or outdated climate assessments. Yet the Secretary of State is still approving airport growth even using narrow CO₂ accounting that excludes inbound flights and ignores aviation’s much larger non-CO₂ warming impacts.

The Supreme Court’s Finch ruling made it clear that all significant climate effects must be assessed, even if scientific methods are still developing. The High Court’s decision cements a planning system that looks backwards while the climate crisis accelerates. LADACAN’s challenge aimed to push the system toward rational, evidence-based decisions that properly account for aviation’s full climate footprint.

That is why it’s so important for us to consider appealing this judgement: the outcome matters not only for Luton, but for every future airport proposal in the UK. This is a watershed moment, with the costs of climate change damage increasing and still no realistic and proven pathways to decarbonise aviation.

It's essential to get this right for the sake of future generations, and we urge all those who care about reducing the environmental impacts of aviation to donate to our crowdfunding campaign so we have the funds to mount an appeal.

We attended the High Court on 4th and 5th November for the hearings on our challenge to the legality of the Secretary of State's decision to permit a doubling of capacity at Luton Airport. 

Concerned demonstrators joined us outside the High Court on 5th November in support of our action, and it was covered on the ITV Anglia news that evening. We clearly stated that further airport expansion was storing up long-term pain due to the increasing costs of climate change.

The hearings covered the first five of our six grounds of challenge. The final ground, relating to reliance on the Jet Zero Strategy, has been postponed pending the outcome of an application to appeal the legality of that Strategy by the Leeds Bradford Action Group GALBA.

Unfortunately we're having to face additional costs arising from that delay to hearing Ground 6, and we ask those who care about the environment in light of the government's apparent determination to continue to expand airports, to help us meet those costs by donating here.

Great progress - our Judicial Review is scheduled to take place in the High Court on 4th and 5th November! Our expert legal team led by Estelle Dehon KC will argue that the Secretary of State's decision to overrule the recommendation of planning inspectors and permit massive further expansion of Luton Airport, was unlawful on various grounds and should be quashed.

A final decision is unlikely to be issued until several months after the hearing. Judgement is often reserved to allow time for the detailed decision document to be prepared and checked. Nevertheless, we'll be there - and it's another chance to remind the press that aviation is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise and its climate change effects are significant, with no proven roadmap to achieve net zero by 2050. And aircraft noise - particularly at night - is known to harm health.

Our thanks again to everyone who has supported this call for crowdfunding - people from all over the UK have contributed. That in itself sends a very clear signal. And we're not the only ones: residents fighting a second runway at Gatwick are also currently appealing on CrowdJustice. The GALBA team at Leeds Bradford are again preparing to challenge the government's "Jet Zero strategy" - which still appears to be based on unproven aspirations. So let's keep fighting!

Really good news - we've been granted permission for a Judicial Review of the Secretary of State's decision to permit further massive expansion of Luton Airport. 

The High Court Judge handling our application has agreed that our grounds for the application are arguable, and has granted our request for a delay on one ground pending the outcome of an Appeal Court case on the lawfulness of the government's Jet Zero strategy.

This is all very encouraging progress, and a testament to the skill and dedication of our legal team headed by Estelle Dehon KC.

Many thanks again for all donations received. Fundraising is going well, and we’re not far off the original estimates now. 

Do please share this page with other friends and contacts who are concerned about the increasing impacts of climate change and the lack of any credible strategy for reducing the carbon emissions from aviation.