Hello supporters

Legal threat to our No Gas Caverns court win - update... unfortunately the battle to stop these giant caverns continues.

As you already know after years of campaigning, No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland together took legal action to stop the gas caverns. We went to the High Court and we then took the case to the Court of Appeal, with the support of thousands of people like you from across these islands, thank you.

In June 2024, the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment over the plans to construct these massive, damaging fossil fuel gas storage caverns - the outcome was a unanimous decision made by three Judges, and the Marine Licence was overturned. With your help, we won our legal challenge to stop the gas caverns in Islandmagee, Northern Ireland.

We had hoped this was the end of this climate wrecking project, but unfortunately we need your support again. Could you help us again please?

No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland are very disappointed that the recently appointed Minister for the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has directed his Department to try and take this recent decision to the Supreme Court - the most senior Court in the UK. 

The Supreme Court will need to decide if this is a case they are willing to hear.

Please can you help us raise funds to give us the best chance to stop these gas caverns once and for all? Even getting ready for the potential of Supreme Court action incurs costs that we can only meet with help from supporters like you.

To find out more please go to our latest Crowd Justice page and please share with your friends and networks. Thank you again

It is extremely important to preserve this win.

What can I do?

• If you can, please donate to help us raise funds for our legal representation  - if this doesn’t go ahead we will still have fees that we will need to pay. 

This is such an important case. We need to uphold the decision of the Court of Appeal to safeguard our precious environment

• Please share this link with all your friends and networks and ask them to donate.

We will keep our Social Media updated with any news. 

Thank you for supporting us, our community, our marine life, our coastline and protecting us all from dirty fossil fuels.

From, No Gas Caverns community and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland.

Just to let you all know we will be back in the High Court on Monday for the Court of Appeal judgment.

This is the legal challenge that you very kindly helped us to take and we will let you know the result as soon as we can.

Just to refresh this is the case that we took with Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland against the plans to construct seven massive, environmentally damaging gas storage caverns underneath Larne Lough.

This judgment is important as it will provide clarity on the duties of the Environment Minister when taking important environmental decisions and will set a precedent for how such decisions are made in the future.

Friends of the Earth NI and No Gas Caverns argue that the former Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs [DAERA] minister, Edwin Poots, acted unlawfully in authorising the construction of the massive fossil fuel gas development.

The two main grounds of appeal are:

• The failure to refer the applications to the Executive Committee.
• The taking into account of an irrelevant consideration (namely a “community fund” to mitigate the impacts of the development).

We will update you all as soon as we can - thank you again for your support.

Thank you all for your ongoing support - it means so much to us. 

Last week we spent two full days in the Court of Appeal so we have completed our latest attempt to put a stop to the 7 skyscraper gas caverns underneath the seabed in Larne Lough.

This appeal is an important constitutional case that will determine environmental decisions being made going forward, not just for Islandmagee but for the whole of Northern Ireland.

But now we wait, and we anticipate the judgement being ready within the coming months, this will be scrutinized by our legal teams and we will let you know as soon as we can.

We are so thankful for the donations and messages of support we have received.

No Gas Caverns group and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland. 

Thank you so much for your continued support for our legal case to stop the 7 sky scraper sized gas caverns proposed for underneath Larne Lough  - an area with multiple environmental designations.

We are continuing to campaign to protect Northern Ireland from unnecessary new fossil fuel infrastructure that will impact on our natural environment, wildlife and trap us into long term reliance on fossil fuels. 

We have been working hard behind the scenes getting ready for the Court of Appeal on Tuesday 6 February and we are expecting to be in court for two days. 

We are continuing to fundraise as much as we can to help cover these legal costs. Over 100 of us met in early January with Friends of the Earth on what was a beautiful sunny, but bitterly cold day, on Brown's Bay Beach.

As you know, this legal case is to challenge the plans to construct 7 large gas storage caverns underneath Larne Lough and our move back to court follows the High Court ruling last August that ruled the project was lawful.

No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth maintain that the former Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs [DAERA] minister, Edwin Poots, acted unlawfully in authorising the construction of the massive fossil fuel gas development.

There are two principal grounds of appeal:

The failure to refer the applications to the Executive Committee [1].

The taking into account of an irrelevant consideration, namely the community fund [2].

We very much appreciated your kind donation towards our legal fees via our Crowd Justice pages your support has meant we can continue with our legal action. Thank you. 

More information on the grounds for appeal:

1. Ground 1 of appeal

The Ministerial Code requires that matters that are ‘cross-cutting’, ‘significant’ or ‘controversial’ must be referred to the Executive Committee. Additionally, the Northern Ireland Act requires ministers to act in accordance with the Ministerial Code.

We argue that this gas caverns project is ‘cross-cutting’, ‘significant’ and ‘controversial’ and therefore was required to be referred to the Executive committee. Consequently, we believe that the failure by the Minister for DAERA to refer this project to the Executive committee and instead approve the project himself was unlawful.

2. Ground 2 of appeal

The provision of a community fund has been referred to as a mitigation measure in the EIA determination under the heading ‘social and economic’, but it is entirely unclear what negative social or economic impact this fund is designed to mitigate. Furthermore, the fund is not secured through a condition and there is no mechanism to require the licensee to set up the fund.

As a result, we say that the community fund is an irrelevant consideration which can be given no weight. We argue that it is clear, however, that the Department took the provision of the community fund into account, as it is referenced as a ‘compensatory measure’ in the EIA determination. Thus, we believe that the decision to grant the Licence was therefore based on an irrelevant consideration and unlawful.

We know there are lots of demands on funds right now but if you could:

* Post the link on your social media or email friends asking them to pledge and/or

* consider another pledge if at all possible, that would be very much appreciated 

Thank you very much