Social Welfare Lawyers in the Centre of Birmingham

Traveller planning

R (Hand) -v- SSCLG

R (Hand) -v- Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2014] EWHC 314 (Admin), 23 January 2014

Town and County Planning Act 1990 Section 171 B (3) states that enforcement action can be taken against the use of land in general within 10 years from the use commencing. However, use of a building as a dwellinghouse becomes immune from enforcement and, therefore, lawful after 4 years.

Stevens -v- SSCLG

Stevens -v- SSCLG & Guildford Borough Council [2013] EWCH 792 (Admin) 10 April 2013

In this case Mr Justice Hickinbottom held that a planning inspector had complied with the requirement laid down by Article3(1) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)  and Article 8 of the Convention when dismissing an appeal against a local authority’s decision to refuse to grant temporary planning permission for a Gypsy site in the Green Belt.

Collins -v- SSCLG

Collins -v- Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government & Flyde Borough Council [2013] EWCA Civ 1193

The appellant in this case, an Irish Traveller, appealed under sections 288 & 289 of the Town and Country Planning Act (T&CPA) 1990 against a planning inspector’s refusal of planning permission for a site near Blackpool. The planning inspector’s refusal had been upheld by the SSCLG. The appeals were dismissed by Pelling J. The appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal.

On the site were 78 Travellers, including 39 children. One of the central issues in the case was the question of ‘the best interests of the children.’

Moore -v- SSCLG

Moore v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government & London Borough of Bromley [2013] EWCA Civ 1194, 9 October 2013

This case concerns a planning appeal in the Court of Appeal (CoA).

The Claimant below (the respondent to this appeal), Charmaine Moore, is a single parent who owns the site she lives on. She lives there in a mobile home with her three children, aged 14, 13 and 7.  She and her family are Romani Gypsies.

Before she moved to the appeal site in July 2010, the Claimant and her children had lived for some 12 years in a caravan situated on the front drive of a rented Housing Association property at Orpington.  The house was used only as a day room and the family always slept in the caravan.  The Claimant had “an aversion to living in bricks and mortar”.