ANIMAL LAB CHALLENGED
High court appeal lodged
The following extract concerning the proposed Cambridge
primate labs is from the Guardian, Saturday January 3, 2004. See also the
coverage in the Daily Express and our press
release.
 Two
animal welfare groups are challenging the government's backing of a £32m
research laboratory which will use monkeys in research on Alzheimer's, Parkinson's
and other incurable diseases.
Lawyers for Animal Aid and the National Anti-Vivisection Society have lodged
an appeal against the deputy prime minister, John Prescott's approval of the
project drawn up by Cambridge University.
Judges will be asked to set aside Mr Prescott's decision to overrule his own
planning inspector by backing the lab on green belt land near Girton, Cambridge.
The appeal describes the minister's action as "perverse and unreasonable"
and based on minimal fact and flawed information.
The societies will also accuse the prime minister and the science minister,
Lord Sainsbury, of prejudicing the outcome of the planning process by speaking
publicly in favour of the labs while the question was under official review.
Scientists defended the proposal at the planning inquiry a year ago. They said
experiments carried out on monkeys would be crucial for potential breakthroughs
in treating some of the most-feared incurable diseases.
The labs were opposed by South Cambridgeshire district council, whose planners
had earlier turned the scheme down twice. Cambridge police, who have had to
deal with attacks on existing laboratories in the area, were also against the
development.
The inspector, Stuart Nixon, ruled that the university had failed to show that
there was a national need for the work due to be done in the labs. He was overruled
by Mr Prescott in a statement issued at the end of November.
Andrew Tyler, director of Animal Aid, said: "John Prescott has dismissed
the well-founded case of his own inspector and given the go-ahead, so this challenge
has a solid base in morality, science and the democratic process. There is a
great deal of opposition from the public and politicians and even within the
university because it is expensive and controversial."
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