Right to tribunal

Tom Minogue (Letters, 5 March) accuses me of being hypocritical in drawing attention to Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prevents Edinburgh City Council from adjudicating in a planning case in which it has a clear partisan interest.

The hypocrisy, he claims, derives from what he asserts is a fact: that "any citizen who tries to establish their rights and obligations with the Faculty of Advocates" will not get an impartial and independent adjudication of those rights.

That is wrong. Legislation governing complaints against lawyers is contained in The Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) 2007. Subject to that, the faculty may make rulings on certain limited matters of professional discipline and standards; but such rulings cannot bar the complainer from asserting his legal rights in the usual way.

If a person has a legal right against a member of the Faculty of Advocates or against the faculty itself he can take his case to court or to a tribunal. Membership of the faculty confers no immunity on its members in relation to matters of legal right and obligation.

In relation to a planning decision, an objector has no right of appeal against a grant of planning permission even if it adversely affects his rights. The applicant for permission, however, has a right of appeal against a refusal of his application. That inequality of rights makes it uniquely important that the planning authority is impartial and independent.

JOHN McCLUSKEY

Lansdowne Crescent

Edinburgh