A central administrative hub will be located at UWE co-ordinating all the activities of the Partnership; namely free legal advice, assistance and representation, publicising environmental issues, offering free Q & A clinics, initiating and supporting campaigns and so forth.The main objective of the launch is to give ownership of the Partnership to all stakeholders.
Bristol is well-blessed with a number of nationwide specialist environmental law firms of solicitors which, however, are primarily corporate-based.One particular objective of the Environmental Justice Partnership is, therefore, a “street-scale” service providing a free legal information, advice and referrals service linked to the Environmental Law Foundation network which would service the interests of non-corporate clients i.e. a neighbourhood service.
The Partnership will offer much more than a purely reactive legal advice service. There is a need not only to be able to match legal advice with specific practical problems (nuisance, a specific development consent application) but have a more proactive pro bono advice system that enable our citizens to participate in strategic environmental decision making. The revising of local air quality strategies under the EA 1995, or waste plans under the EPA 1990, and all manner of statutory environmental plans demand legal expertise being matched to individuals and neighbourhoods in ways that only a pro bono service can offer.
As a concrete example of what the Partnership may offer, CLARS is currently advising local councils and action groups in North Somerset on the legalities of overground pylons connecting Bristol to a prospective out of town power station. This raises all kinds of legal issues, common law, statutory, domestic and European which corporate environmental lawyers would expect clients to pay for. It is hoped that the dispute can be resolved without litigation, and no matter how rich the clients, individually or collectively, it is very attractive for them to have pro bono advice from a legal team (trainee lawyers supervised by academics supported by practising barristers of the Western Circuit) which is looking to put into practice challenging legal concepts (such as the common law doctrines of public trust and waste which have medieval origins but remain untested in modern time).