The Court of Appeal has this morning announced its decision on the appeal and cross appeal in the case brought by Mathew Richards against the EA.
The EA's appeal has been allowed and the cross-appeal on behalf of Mathew has been dismissed. This has the effect of setting aside the judgement in the original case by Mr Justice Fordham. This is, I'm sure everyone will agree, very disappointing.
The full judgement giving the reason for the decision will come later, probably in January - the Court has taken the relatively unusual step of announcing which way it is going to rule in advance of the full judgement due to the time-sensitive nature of the situation and the deadlines imposed by the judge in the original case.
I am not a lawyer, and without the full judgement it is at this stage very difficult to understand the reasons for the decision, but I imagine this may well be heading to the Supreme Court for further consideration.
In the meantime, I will continue to do all I can to hold the EA, and the operator Walleys Quarry Ltd, to account for their failure to get this situation under control. This has gone on for far too long, causing misery not only for Mathew but the whole community, and I will continue to press for appropriate action to be taken to resolve the immediate issues with the odour, as soon as possible, as well as proper accountability for those who allowed it to get so bad.
If you would like to view this morning's brief hearing for yourself, the link is below: