News

The Highways Agency (HA) is refusing to release the legal advice it received that would explain why it attempted to ban members of the public from buying food and drink at the Orwell Crossing Lorry Park. The future of the essential Suffolk truck park was hanging by a thread last summer when the government agency claimed that permission to build the site in 2002 was made only on the basis that it would serve truck drivers, not the general public.

Site owner Karl Rout was forced to spend £50,000 to appeal against the decision and fight for the ban to be lifted. He said the truck park would have to close if the appeal failed because the business would become financially unviable. This would have sparked havoc in the county with hauliers having almost nowhere secure to park up.

But planning inspector Michael Ellison allowed the appeal, although restrictions on advertising are still in place. A request by Commercial Motor under the Freedom of Information Act for the legal advice the HA received relating to its restrictions has been refused because "there is a very substantial public interest in maintaining the confidentiality of legal professional privilege material".

HA regional director Gwyn Drake admits that although there is a clear public interest in the work of the government being scrutinised, the relationship between a lawyer and client must be protected.

He adds: "Legal advice will include  arguments in support of final conclusions but also relevant counter-arguments for and against a particular view. This could set out the perceived weaknesses of a department's position." Rout says he is not surprised at the HA's response: "We heard their legal defence at the inquiry it was very full of holes, it was almost petty."