There is no reason why a specialist environmental tribunal would create a professional backwater (see [2004] Gazette, 8 April, 20).

This is an issue that has been around for at least 15 years and during that period has received widespread support.

The UK Environmental Law Association, with others, is persuaded of the urgent need to set up an environmental tribunal to consider certain environmental appeals.

This issue has been thoroughly researched and discussed, with the ball now firmly in the court of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

An environmental tribunal would result in a more transparent, consistent and informed system and, as Lord Justice Carnworth recently commented, would establish 'the environment as firmly in our legal structures as it is now in our laws'.

With the introduction of significant new laws, not least the Aarhus Convention on access to environmental justice, an environmental tribunal would go a long way in making the current disjointed environmental appeals system more accessible and workable.

Andrew Wiseman, chairman, UK Environmental Law Association