Judge rejects request for judicial review by pro Jimmy Bryson on fire

A judge at Belfast High Court has refused to grant leave for judicial review of a decision by two Stormont ministers to launch a failed legal case against the police.

Judge Schofield said the request for judicial review by pro-activist Jimmy Bryson was «academic» because the legal dispute between PSNI and ministers is now over.

In July last year, Infrastructure Minister Nicola Malone and Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey launched action against police, challenging PSNI’s decision not to intervene to help clear the controversial ‘Night Eleventh’ fire in the loyalist Tiger Bay area north of Belfast.

A Supreme Court judge dismissed the case at an emergency late-night hearing days before the arson is due.

Bryson, who represented the fire builders in last year’s dispute, sought judicial review against the two ministers, arguing that they should have secured Stormont Executive’s approval before taking legal action against PSNI.

Judge Schofield, in his decision to grant leave for a full hearing, said the plaintiff made the debatable case that ministers acted unlawfully.

However, he said, since ministers ultimately failed in their due process, and set fire to so long ago, there was no justifiable practical purpose for hearing a judicial review.

The fire has been the source of mounting tensions amid claims from residents in the neighboring New Lodge National that it was built near the community’s sensitive frontage.

The nationalist residents claimed that they lived in fear and were attacked by rockets launched by loyal Mashaloon builders.

Loyalists rejected suggestions that the fire site was deliberately provocative and accused Nationalists and Republicans of fomenting tensions in an attempt to deprive them of what they saw as a legitimate celebration of their culture.