'Frustrating' High Court set back in Waltham St Lawrence Travellers' saga - Berkshire

From the Royal Borough Observer

A FOUR-YEAR saga over a Travellers’ site is set to rumble on after a council suffered a 'frustrating’ High Court setback.

Occupants of an illegal Travellers’ site in Shurlock Road, Waltham St Lawrence, have been granted a judicial review of the Royal Borough’s decision to take direct action to remove them from the site in February this year.

Justice Mostyn said, on Wednesday last week, it is arguable the council’s decision to take direct action 'failed to give any meaningful weight to [the council’s] failure to provide alternative pitches in circumstances where both the inspector and the Secretary of State in 2011 had expected that it would’.

Councillor Michael John Saunders, cabinet member for planning and property, said: “We are of course disappointed that the court has come to this conclusion, especially after ruling in the council’s favour on all previous occasions.

“It is particularly frustrating because the reason given is the council’s failure to provide alternative pitches, a challenge we have diligently worked towards resolving despite a real lack of suitable sites in the borough and the recent go ahead for an extension with 10 pitches at Mill Place in Datchet.

“However, we fully respect and will continue to uphold the due process of the law.”

The occupants’ bid to force a judicial review over the council’s decision to decline to determine a planning application in February was thrown out by the same judge on the same day.

Travellers moved on to the site on December 19, 2009. An enforcement notice for them to leave the site was issued five days later.

An unsuccessful appeal by the landowner led to the period of compliance of the enforcement notice to vacate the site to be extended to Monday, February 11, 2013.