Legal battle costs blow for Aberdeen bypass protester

THE protest group standing in the way of the long-awaited £400 million Aberdeen bypass has been dealt a “body blow” in its bid to take its legal battle to Britain’s highest court.

William Walton, the chairman of campaign group RoadSense, was last month granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court against approval for the controversial bypass after three Scottish judges threw out the group’s Court of Session appeal against the project.

The court has now ruled that Mr Walton will have to pay only £5,000 of the Scottish Government’s court costs if he loses his action.

But it was also revealed yesterday that if Mr Walton wins the action then the Scottish Government, which will be represented at the appeal by two senior counsel, will only be liable to pay for his QC and a solicitor – and not his junior counsel.

Mr Walton said: “This is a real body blow. We were expecting to go into this hearing with the same number of barristers as the Scottish Government will have, which will be two, and that doesn’t now appear to be possible. It’s hardly equality of arms and it’s hardly justice.”

He added: “In the event that I lose, my liability for the costs of the Scottish Government will be restricted to £5,000. But the sting in the tail in the ruling is that, in the event that I win, then the Scottish Government will only be liable to pay for the cost of one senior counsel and solicitor representing me. No costs would be awarded to pay for a junior barrister.

“A junior would not get paid at all, irrespective of the outcome. And to go to the highest court in the land without a junior is almost suicidal.”