Council wins case against Dale Farm Travellers
A local authority acted lawfully in seeking to forcibly remove more than 40 traveller families from an unauthorised site in Essex, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Overturning a high court decision by Mr Justice Collins, in Basildon District Council v McCarthy & Ors [2009] EWCA Civ 13, Lord Justice Pill and two Lords of Appeal found the council authorities acted lawfully in taking action to evict the travellers.
The council intended to take direct action under s 178 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 to force compliance with enforcement notices in respect of the land, at Dale Farm, Billericay, in December 2007. Collins J quashed the council’s decision, which would have involved removing the caravans and lifting the hard standing on which the caravans rested. He found the council’s decision indirectly discriminatory and found it had failed to take into account its homelessness obligation, the individual needs of the travellers and whether they had a need for accommodation.
Delivering judgment, Pill LJ referred to the European Court of Human Rights case of Chapman v
