14 DAY TRIAL // Later this week, the Royal Courts of Justice in London will have to debate on whether or not the British Government can be held responsible for not having dealt with the issue of air pollution in the country, particularly given the fact that they apparently promised to do just so.
Since high officials supposedly represent and serve the people and their interests, it should come as no surprise that, when the members of the British government failed to take appropriate measures so as to abide by European Union pollution limits, someone took matters into their own hands and made sure they paid for having neglected this very important aspect of their job.
This particular someone is the environmental law group ClientEarth, led by James Thornton, who in December 2011 filed a petition to the High Court explaining how the government tended to elude some of its tasks regarding public health and needed to be held responsible for doing so.
As clickgreen.org reports, about 29,000 people annually die in the UK as a result of health problems having to do with air pollution.
As well as this, it seems that, regardless of whatever environmental projects are to be implemented from this moment on, legal limits for air quality can only be reached in the UK somewhere around the year 2025.
Interestingly enough, the limit set by the European Union for Britain's clearing out its air was the 1st of January 2010, so basically one could argue that the British government was fully aware of what its task was, yet somehow failed in carrying it out.
Since it is apparently impossible to tackle the entire British government at the same time, Caroline Spelman, the Secretary of State for Environment, is the one against whom the legal challenge is now brought.
However, from where we stand, it is quite doubtful that Mrs. Caroline Spelman is allowed to take decisions all by herself, without even so much as having to consult so-called “higher” authorities, so perhaps soon enough other individuals will be brought to court and made to answer for their negligence as far as environmental issues are concerned.