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ofAnnette Schlegl
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shut down
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The administrative court decided in an urgent procedure that the BUND may gain access to environmental information on gravel mining at Langener Waldsee. Sehring had sued against it.
Cheers at the Hessian Association for Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND): The Darmstadt Administrative Court has rejected a lawsuit by the Sehring company in an urgent procedure. The company, which has been mining sand and gravel at Langener Waldsee for years, had complained that the BUND should receive environmental information on gravel mining and the status of recultivation at the Waldsee. The environmental association wants to save the forest on the forest lake.
For BUND, the success it achieved in the urgent procedure on January 15th is a milestone in the legal dispute over the extension of the Langener Waldsee. With this, “the previous information blockade of the Sehring company failed”, said Guido Carl, deputy chairman of the BUND Hessen.
In the past, the BUND had repeatedly made requests to inspect files in accordance with the Environmental Information Act. The Environmental Information Act aims to enable free access to environmental information.
On March 3, 2020, the environmental association requested the Darmstadt Regional Council to inspect documents and data on recultivation, reforestation, species protection measures and backfill quantities at Langener Waldsee. The RP then involved the company Sehring, which contradicted the BUND’s request for inspection of the files on March 19. On April 30, the RP nevertheless decided in favor of the BUND. As a result, Sehring sued the RP decision in early June. On August 25, the state authorities ordered the immediate execution of their decision of April 30, and about a month later Sehring sued the Darmstadt Administrative Court against the immediate execution and thus against the RP.
Insight undesirable
You take the right to file a lawsuit “against events that, in our opinion, interfere with our internal company”, explained board member Stefan Sehring to the FR. On Friday, the judges at the administrative court dismissed Sehring’s complaint in an urgent procedure – “in the clear tenor as unfounded,” says Thomas Norgall, deputy regional manager of BUND. This means that a preliminary decision was made for the environmental association that was involved in the proceedings – even if Sehring can still appeal to the Kassel Administrative Court and the decision in the main proceedings is still pending. In total, there are four lawsuits pending against the RP by Sehring at the administrative court – all of them because of access to environmental information. The proceedings are still open because the court is overloaded.
At Sehring, they are unimpressed by the verdict of the urgent proceedings. “Since the jurisdiction concentrates on factual issues, we look forward to the further proceedings with just as factual interest,” announced Stefan Sehring. The BUND, on the other hand, sees “the company’s previous information blockade failed”, since the grounds for complaint in the still outstanding proceedings are essentially identical.
By the way, an appeal hearing is scheduled for February 9th at the Administrative Court in Kassel. This concerns the BUND’s lawsuit against the planning approval decision of the RP, which allows Sehring to expand gravel mining at Waldsee. In the first instance, the BUND’s action has already been dismissed.
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