UPDATE
ON THE APPLICATION FOR CONDONATION
FOR THE LATE FILING OF AN APPEAL
22
MARCH 2005
Dear Purchasers
On Friday, 18 March 2005 the hearing
before the Appeals Tribunal took
place. The National Department
of Agriculture made application
for permission to file a late
appeal to the decision of the
Development Tribunal.
Unfortunately, no decision was
handed down at the hearing and
the Appeals Tribunal have indicated
that their judgement will be given
after the 5th of April 2005.
What are consequences of this
hearing?
1. Should the Appeals Tribunal
refuse the Department of Agriculture's
application, then the approval
as it stands becomes binding on
all parties and construction of
the roads will start immediately.
2. In the event of the Appeals
Tribunal allowing the Department
of Agriculture to lodge an appeal
then they will be given a specified
period (and it is our view that
it will not be more then 30 days)
to lodge an appeal. This will
then be set down for hearing before
the Appeals Tribunal and a date
will be given which should be
somewhere in the region of 45
- 90 days after the appeal has
been lodged. At the appeal the
Department of Agriculture will
then have to persuade the Appeals
Tribunal that the decision of
the Development Tribunal was incorrect.
The above obviously produces a
certain amount of uncertainty
as to when work will be able to
start at Garlington. It is our
view as Developers, that the appeal
of the Department of Agriculture
will be unsuccessful for they
can bring up no facts that were
not considered at the original
Tribunal Hearing. It was also
disturbing to us that at this
hearing the Department of Agriculture
admitted to still not having read
the Application for Garlington,
nor the recommendation of the
Provincial Department of Agriculture
nor the Record of Decision handed
down by the Department of the
Environmental Affairs and Agriculture
nor the judgement of the Development
Tribunal. It is sad to see a Department
throwing so many hurdles in our
way and yet treating the work
of their fellow Deparment of Agriculture
and the Development Tribunal with
such contempt.
We will keep you posted with regards
to developments. We are still
hoping that we will be able to
move on site in May 2005 but if
the right to appeal is granted
we will obviously have to hold
back the date for construction
of the roads until the appeal
is dealt with, which means that
we will possibly only be able
to start work on the installation
of services in September or October
2005.
Yours sincerely
THE
TRUSTEES OF THE Garlington DEVELOPMENT
TRUST
01 DECEMBER 2004
