Note: This article is from the Guardian.
This article titled “Prince Charles to challenge ruling set to lift secrecy about his estate” was written by Robert Booth, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 28th November 2011 19.52 UTCPrince Charles is to challenge a judicial ruling that threatens to expose the environmental impact of the private estate that provides his £17m-a-year income.
The prince’s lawyers have sought leave to appeal against a judgement made earlier this month that concluded the Duchy of Cornwall should release environmental information about its operations because it is effectively a public authority.
The ruling promised to lift the veil of secrecy around the prince’s £700m hereditary estate that has been in place for hundreds of years, and allow the public to use environmental freedom of information laws to inquire about its activities.
It was handed down by John Angel, principal judge at the information tribunal after a test case brought by an environmental campaigner in Cornwall.
Michael Bruton was concerned about the duchy leasing waters for farming non-native oysters in the Lower Fal and Helford intertidal area. He asked the duchy what assessments it had made of the environmental impact of the lease. The duchy refused to answer, saying it was a private estate.
But the judge said he believed that no assessment had been carried out and ruled the Duchy must release information because it was a public authority. He said a key reason it should be considered was that it provides public funding to the Prince of Wales, it operates as the harbour authority in the Scilly Isles and has the role of dealing with intestacy and company failure in the county of Cornwall, which were effectively public roles.
On Monday, Clarence House confirmed that Jonathan Crow QC, Charles’ attorney general, and the duchy “have sought permission to appeal the decision which found that the Duchy is a ‘public authority’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information Regulations [Act] 2004″.
Bruton said he would fight any appeal and has launched a fundraising campaign to meet his legal bills which are likely to run into the tens of thousands of pounds and more if the case reaches the high court.
“The duchy should be open about its environmental impact because the Prince of Wales has made his career out of saying environmental protection is key to man’s survival on the planet,” he said. “It is a great pity that we don’t know whether the duchy practices what he preaches.”
The latest legal battle over Charles’s secrecy comes as the information tribunal deliberates on a separate case in which the Guardian is fighting the information commissioner and government ministries over the refusal to release correspondence from Charles to ministers in seven Whitehall departments under the Freedom of Information Act.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
