The Stop Veolia Legal Fund now tops £10,400 from 236 fabulous donors! A big thanks to Chris Taylor for organising the recent envelope drop and door to door collections across the community over the last few weekends, when over a thousand homes were visited (many three times). Also thanks to Chris’s hard working team of volunteers who between them collected £3,400 towards our current legal fund total.
Thank you to all those who have given so far. It is much appreciated.
Public Hearing
Hitting the initial £10k figure means we can commit to employing a barrister to represent the Long Leys community at the Public Inquiry beginning on Tuesday 27 February 2018 at Bishop Grosseteste University. The Hearing will run for an estimated 3-4 days. Please pencil in these dates and come and show your support for the community. Both Veolia and the County Council will have their own barristers to represent them. The County Council will be defending their original planning refusal decision and LLRA/Stop Veolia Campaign Group will be raising additional reasons why the planning application should be refused.
How will the legal fund money be spent?
We have around £9,000 which is effectively already committed, for the public meeting hall hire, to prepare documents (a Statement of Case and Proofs of Evidence) and to book a barrister for the duration of the Public Hearing. This leaves us with around £1,300 to pay for expert witnesses to support our evidence and to provide testimony to challenge Veolia’s and for other costs.
| Activity | Planned spend |
|---|---|
| Hall hire – 20 Sept meeting | £50 |
| Statement of Case (submitted) | £1,000 |
| Proofs of Evidence (due Jan 2018) | £1,000 |
| Barrister inc hearing | £7,000 |
| Expert Witnesses | £1,000 |
| Contingency | £350 |
| Total | £10,400 |
See Fund Status for more details of income and current outgoings.
Have we enough money?
It would take a brave person to say we’ve enough money. What we can say today is that we now have a seat – and a voice – at the Inquiry table, and a young, talented and hungry barrister to argue our case. But we can’t relax. If we determine the need for specialist expert witnesses to make critical points as yet unidentified, it will cost more. If any one of a number of unexpected factors hits us, it will cost more – and by their very nature we can’t plan for these as they are just that, unexpected. So, the fundraising runs on.
If you haven’t donated so far, then please do so if you are able. In the meantime, we will continue to be busy working on your behalf to prepare the evidence needed for the Public Inquiry. You can donate:
• Via cheque, payable to Long Leys Residents Association (please mark StopVeolia on the back of the cheque and if you prefer your donation to be anonymous also write ANON on the back). Cheques can be posted to 44 Albion Close, LN1 1ED or call 01522 853630 and someone will pick it up.
• Online Via justgiving.com/crowdfunding/stopveoliainlincoln
A magnificent response to the Envelope drop and very well done to Chris Taylor and the many helpers in this action.
Still a little more needed and if the 700 houses who have still to contribute each gave say £5 each the target would reach a healthy £14,000.