R (Eastwood) – v – the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead [2016] EWCA Civ 437, 10 May 2016
In this case, applications for permanent and temporary planning permission for a Gypsy/Traveller site in the Green Belt were refused but 18 months was given for compliance.
Winterstein and Others -v- France (application no. 27013/07)
The applicants are 25 French nationals acting on their own behalf and on behalf of their minor children.
Thurrock Borough Council – v – Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Ward [2016] EWHC 200 (Admin) 09 February 2016
A Planning Inspector granted Mr Ward planning permission for a temporary period for a Gypsy site in the Green Belt.
R (O’Brien) – v – South Cambridgeshire Council and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2016] EWHC 36 (Admin), 22 January 2016
This case involved applications for retrospective planning permission. Localism Act 2011 Section 123 amends Town and Country Planning Act 1990 by adding a new Section 70C which reads as follows:-
This claim concerned a challenge brought by an Irish Traveller to a “local connection” requirement contained within North Somerset Council’s housing allocations scheme, which had been extended beyond Part VI Housing Act 1996 allocations to cover Gypsy/Traveller site allocations. The effect of that requirement was that the Claimant, who could not point to a local connection to North Somerset, was denied entry to the Council’s housing register.
Connors v Forest of Dean DC, Bristol County Court, Recorder Blunt QC
Ms Connors is an Irish Traveller with 5 children, 2 of whom are disabled owing to a lung condition and hearing impairments. She had travelled all her life except for a short period in which she lived in a house. In June 2014 she had to leave a Traveller site in Stroud and relocated to the Forest of Dean District Council (‘FoD’) area.
R (Mulvenna and Smith) – v – Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Equality and Human Rights Commission [2015] EWHC 3494 (Admin), 4th December 2015
This case followed on from the case of R (Moore and Coates) – v – SSCLG (see the CLP website at:- (http://www.communitylawpartnership.co.uk/traveller-planning).
Whitcher – v – Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
In this case Mr Whitcher, a Romani Gypsy, sought planning permission for himself and his family on his land in the area of the New Forest National Park.
St Edmundsbury Borough Council – v – Oakley [2015] EWHC 1975 (QB), 10 July 2015, Mrs Justice Patterson
The defendant had planning permission for a single Gypsy site but injunction action under Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Section 187B was taken against her for bringing on a residential touring caravan in an unauthorised location, use of the stable block for residential purposes and other matters. An injunction order was granted on 17 December 2014 but was not complied with. Committal action was taken.
The Traveller Movement and Others – v – J D Wetherspoon Plc, Central London County Court, 18 May 2015, HHJ Hand QC
On 17th November 2011 the annual Traveller Movement Conference took place. As usual the Conference took place at the offices of the Traveller Movement (offices shared with other organisations) at the Resource Centre on Holloway Road in London. Also as usual, after the Conference, some of the delegates went for a drink to the Coronet public house next door, a public house run by J D Wetherspoon. There was no evidence of any problems having been caused in previous years or in this year by delegates from the Conference. However, there was evidence of problems following on from a Conference at the Resource Centre in 2005 on the occasion of the Anarchist Book Fair.