Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan

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Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan has strongly refuted claims that construction work on the airport continued despite the recent Privy Council ruling.

Astaphan dismissed the accusations over the weekend, stating the allegations hold no merit since the airport has already been completed.

Moreover, he clarified that the construction work on the airport was not even the subject of the case.

Senior Counsel Astaphan also highlighted that the court had repeatedly denied enforcing an injunction to halt work on the project.

He explained that these denials were made at the High Court level and affirmed by the Appeal Court, indicating that the legal system had already dealt with the matter.

Therefore, Astaphan believes the allegations are baseless and lack legal standing, as the airport was already finished, and the court had already ruled on the matter.

“The airport continued to be built because the high court judge refused to grant the injunction to stop the construction of the airport even if she held initially that they had standing,” Astaphan said

Meanwhile, the construction of the new airport in Barbuda has been completed.

However, the government has postponed its opening until it secures approval from the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Prime Minister Gaston Browne said the delay has nothing to do with the recent case before the Privy Council in London.

The prime minister explained that the government is taking extra precautions to ensure that the Barbuda Airport is certified by the ICAO.

He added that the runway at the airport will be extended to accommodate direct flights from major international airports. The extension will enable standard commercial jets that currently use the VC Bird International Airport to fly directly to Barbuda.

The prime minister expressed his eagerness to see the Barbuda Airport accommodate direct commercial flights from major international airports.

He hopes that the airport’s certification and the runway’s expansion will help to boost tourism and economic growth in Barbuda.

Not too long ago, the Privy Council released a ruling criticizing the government’s failure to follow due process in building Barbuda’s international airport.

The ruling included numerous excerpts, one of which stated that provisions of the Physical Planning Act 2003 could not be circumvented by pointing to a consultation at a village meeting about wider development proposals more than two years before work commences on site.

John Mussington and Jacklyn Frank brought the lawsuit challenging the airport construction in 2018, arguing that the airport would be environmentally destructive.

The government tried to dismiss the case because Mussington and Frank were not legally authorized to challenge the government’s decision.

However, the Privy Council ruled that the pair did have legal standing to bring the lawsuit.