Post Redcar, councillors have a broader remit to behave politically, says Nicholas Dobson
The swirling eddies and currents of bias in local authority decisions (which have lured many an unwary municipal mariner to their doom) have finally been brought into some calm confluence by the Court of Appeal. For on 1 July 2008 the court overturned the decision by Mr Justice Jackson on 20 December 2007 to quash a politically sensitive decision of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council taken during the 2007 “elections purdah” period, ie that between the notice of election and the election itself (see Persimmon Homes Teeside Limited v. R (Kevin Paul Lewis) [2008] EWCA Civ 746).
The claim had been brought by Kevin Paul Lewis and Persimmon appealed against the decision of the Divisional Court. While the council had been represented at first instance (and had opposed the application to quash) it was not part of the Court of Appeal proceedings.
In the process, the court on a close analysis of the evidence came to different conclusions from those of the Divisional Court. As Lord Justice Pill commented, the “basic facts
