Environmentalist to keep fighting despite criticism
BBCAn environmentalist said he will keep fighting for the climate despite being criticised by the prime minister after millions of pounds in taxpayer money was spent opposing his legal bids to block transport schemes.
Andrew Boswell, a former Green Party councillor, has been involved in numerous legal challenges against A47 safety schemes and claimed the planning system does not work to protect nature or the climate.
In a comment piece published in the Daily Mail on Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer said "Nimbys and zealots" had tried to stop the government from "building the infrastructure the country needs".
The BBC has contacted the prime minister's office for comment.
Sir Keir Starmer opened his comment piece by saying a former Green Party councillor had spent years trying to block "vital" schemes.
He said: "So why was he able to waste years of the court's time and squander tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer money?
"There are countless more examples of Nimbys and zealots gumming up the legal system often for their own ideological blind spots to stop the government building the infrastructure the country needs."
Within the piece, Starmer also hit out at other activist groups who had prevented the development of an East Anglia wind farm for more than two years and another group which delayed the Sizewell C nuclear power project in Suffolk.
PA MediaWhile he did not name Dr Boswell, the former Green Party councillor, said it was a "dangerous article" and a "low-level attack".
Dr Boswell believed he has been "widely supported" in a number of his legal bids, such as stopping the dualling of the A47 between Blofield and North Burlingham and environmental concerns of the Norwich Western Link.
The project, which would cost £274m, would have connected the Northern Distributor Road (NDR) to the A47.
However, the plans were withdrawn by Norfolk County Council after Natural England changed rules protecting rare Barbastelle bats that lived on the route of the proposed road.
Dr Boswell said: "I'm not doing it for myself... I am doing it for my grandchildren.
"I am also doing it for nature and if we just let this erosion of nature go on in this country and the erosion of the climate targets then our kids won't have a decent place to live.
"I was fighting for the right cause to stabilise the climate system. I may have lost at this point but I was fighting for the right cause. That money was worth it because of that."
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