The National Trust are currently pursuing a judicial review against the decision to build a golf course near to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland Environment Minister Alex Attwood granted planning permission last year for the £100 million Bushmills Dunes Golf Resort and Spa, which is to include a five-star 120 bedroom hotel and 75 villas.
The National Trust said Mr Attwood acted "unreasonably and irrationally" in granting planning permission for the resort, which would lie within a buffer zone protecting the landscape setting of the World Heritage site. The Minister was also accused of second-guessing the views of Unesco (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) by allegedly failing to properly consult them before taking his decision.
But David Elvin QC, responding on behalf of the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland (DoE NI), contended that neither the World Heritage Convention nor its guidelines have any legal force in the proceedings because they have not been incorporated into domestic law. He also argued the World Heritage Committee was notified about the planning application in 2010, with its secretariat agreeing to respond if it raised serious issues. "They only came back to us two years later having been thoroughly prodded by the National Trust," he told the court.
Those behind the planned 365-acre development claim it will boost tourism and create hundreds of jobs. But according to the Trust it could have a major environmental impact, threatening the habitat of some rare species.
The hearing continues.
