Travellers win eviction court fight - Essex

From the Newmarket Journal

Travellers evicted from the Dale Farm site in Essex have won a High Court battle over appeal rights after being told they must move on from another place where they have pitched camp.

Mary Flynn and her daughter Nora Sheridan moved their caravans to a roadway track in the Metropolitan Green Belt which leads east from Oak Lane at Billericay in Essex to Dale Farm in November 2011, following the Dale Farm eviction, which made national headlines.

They and other Dale Farm Travellers who also set up home at the track were served with enforcement notices by Basildon District Council in July 2012.

They were accused of breaching planning controls by stationing residential caravans without gaining permission for "a material change of use" of the land.

Mrs Flynn lodged an appeal under the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act. But the local government planning inspectorate decided on September 3 2012 her appeal was not valid because she did not have a legal interest in the land or a licence from the landowner to occupy it.

Mr Justice Lewis, sitting at London's High Court, allowed an appeal by both mother and daughter and ruled the inspectorate had "erred in law" because it failed to consider whether or not Mrs Flynn had "an implied licence" to occupy the land at the relevant time.

The judge said: "In my judgment, given the length of time that Mrs Flynn had been on the land, and given the fact that it was being said that the owners had not asked them to leave and were content with their occupation, the possibility of an implied licence was in issue.

"In those circumstances permission to apply for judicial review is granted and the decision of September 3 2012 will be quashed."

He said the inspectorate should now be allowed to consider whether in fact Mrs Flynn had an implied licence at the time the enforcement notice was served and the appeal brought.

A Government spokesman said: "This was a ruling on a technical point of planning law and how the planning inspectorate considered interests in land.

"Whether the claimant has a right of appeal will simply be re-considered with due process."