The UK's high court has ordered the country's government to explain the delay to the publication of its clean air plan. A hearing, where ministers will need to defend their calls for a delay, and where environmental lawyers ClientEarth will respond, will be held on Thursday, 27 April. The government’s initial plans were dismissed by a court as unlawfully weak. A new deadline for draft proposals to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution was set for 4pm on Monday. The original plans had been dismissed by judges as so poor as to be unlawful. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said that he had been told in January that there would not be enough time to publish the plan before Christmas.
The UK's high court has ordered the country's government to explain the delay to the publication of its clean air plan. A hearing, where ministers will need to defend their calls for a delay, and where environmental lawyers ClientEarth will respond, will be held on Thursday, 27 April. The government’s initial plans were dismissed by a court as unlawfully weak. A new deadline for draft proposals to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution was set for 4pm on Monday. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said that he had been told in January that there would not be enough time to publish the plan before Christmas.