A Wiltshire town council has hired a ‘heavyweight’ litigation lawyer in its dispute with a conservation group trying to protect an ancient woodland.
Stephen Dilley, a partner in the Bristol law firm Womble Bond Dickinson, leads the firm’s commercial litigation practice and formerly acted for the Post Office in one of the UK’s biggest miscarriage of justice scandals.
His department is now acting for Bradford on Avon Town Council which is fighting a temporary injunction obtained in February by the Friends of Becky Addy Wood conservation group.
A spokesperson for Bradford on Avon Town Council said: “Bradford on Avon Town Council are being advised by solicitors, Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP. It would be inappropriate to comment further whilst the litigation is ongoing.”
Mr Dilley’s WBD profile says: “Stephen deals with complex, heavyweight disputes, based on giving clear, concise and commercial advice to our clients that adds real value to their businesses.”
But the Friends now fear the legal advice being provided by WBD to the council is designed to drag out the dispute, hitting both the public and their members in the pocket.
A FROBAW spokesperson said: “We are dismayed by the intransigence of the council when all the Friends of Becky Addy Woods want, and have been trying since March 2023 to achieve, is to reach a settlement with the council which would ensure protection of the wood from needless risk averse felling in perpetuity.
“Any future risk assessment of the woodland footpath must be based on an accurate count of pedestrian numbers using the footpath at different times of day and on different days of the week, such as the Friends footfall count survey carried out over three weeks in summer 2022.
“The council has not carried out a footfall survey and has grossly overestimated both the footfall and therefore the risk of harm to the public. We fear if settlement fails it will result in court action and more legal costs.”
After a temporary injunction was granted by the High Court in Bristol, all work on trees in Becky Addy Wood was prohibited.
The conservation group said it “regretted” having to take legal action to stop the work but claimed it had no choice when healthy trees and trees that posed no risk to the public, and which provide valuable carbon capture and vital wildlife habitat, were being felled.
At a hearing on February 24, the High Court later extended the injunction for a further 12 weeks to “focus the minds” of the two parties who then agreed to stay legal proceedings in May in a bid to find a mutually agreed solution.
It was hoped that would bring an end to months of protests and legal wrangling over the long-term management of Becky Addy Wood overlooking the Avoncliff Valley.
The council said it would engage an arborist and an ecologist appointed by their professional bodies to conduct the survey and produce a two-year management plan for the woods which it would then implement.
But now the two sides appear likely to go back to court to settle the dispute.
More than 16 years ago, Mr Dilley formerly advised the Post Office in its criminal and civil cases against hundreds of sub-postmasters throughout the UK who were wrongfully accused of theft, false accounting and/or fraud.
He recently gave evidence in September to the public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.
At the inquiry, Mr Dilley defended a Post Office decision not to disclose details of the 12,000-15,000 calls being made every month by SPM’s reporting technical problems with the firm’s Horizon IT software accounting system.
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