Without the help and support from people who have
written to Martyn Dilley, DEFRA, I do not think our situation would be
quite as positive at the moment. The fact that DEFRA is being made aware
that quite a number of folk have found their actions to recover costs to be very
inappropriate will have certainly made DEFRA more careful as to how they
continue to act. In the letters accompanying donations there have been a
large number letting me know that they are writing to Mr Dilley, so maybe he has
had a large number of letters about this issue.
The media has been very supportive, and our local
reporters have done a great job in keeping up the pressure, and getting the
information into the public domain. If this had not happened I know things would
have been grim for us as a family. It was brilliant to have Christopher Booker
highlight the issue on 3 February in the Sunday Telegraph.
Now that I have discovered that the necessary
notice was not served on me I can show that they have certainly not acted in
accordance with the law in this instance. I have still not been able to
track down the High Court reference number for their claim; they have been using
my old judicial review claim number from 2001, and should have been issued with
their own claim number for the writ.
Anyway, I just wanted to say a very big thank you
from us as a family to everyone who has supported us in this. I am hoping that
the clouds will lift a little from now on and that the dark DEFRA cloud will
vanish for now. I am keeping all fingers crossed.
Thank you to everyone, especially to Mary, for
keeping this going in the public domain.(please don't take that out
!).
Janet