High Court gives travellers one month to leave site

A judge has given travellers who set up an unauthorised camp on green belt land near a village a month to leave the site.

Deputy High Court judge, Mr Justice Kennedy has ruled in favour of a Dacorum Borough Council after it took legal action in a bid to clear the camp near Flamstead, Hertfordshire.

Billy Pither, the chairman of Flamstead Parish Council, told the BBC after the ruling: "We are delighted, to say the very least. It seems that justice has prevailed."

The judge, who made the ruling on Friday at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, said there had been "flagrant" breaches of interim orders and said the granting of a final injunction was "just and proportionate".

Dacorum Borough Council had taken legal action against more than 20 named "defendants" and against "persons unknown" to stop them from living on the land and developing the site.

Kennedy was told that the borough council had issued a stop notice after development on the land began over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

Families who live on the site opposed the council's application and had applied for retrospective planning permission to turn the area into a "gypsy site", the court heard.

Other judges had also made holding injunctions aimed at halting development on the site, which is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, prior to a trial.

The judge concluded that when the council began legal action there had been "no residential occupation" of the site.

He said defendants had "misled" judges and there had been an attempt to "circumvent" planning regulations.

The court heard that the borough council had run up £51,000 in legal bills, and the judge ordered the travellers to pay £15,000 towards the council's costs.

Pither said there had been "surprise" and "anger" locally when the development began.

"I think the village will be delighted," Pither said outside of court, adding: "I know a lot of the country have been watching this case. I think it proves a point."

"I would like to think we are a fairly civilised village and people understood and were respectful.

"There has certainly been a lot of pressure on us as a parish council to follow through with it," he added.

He said he had been impressed with the legal process and added: "Once Dacorum got going, and I'm not saying they were slow, they were all over it."

The travellers argued that families with children were living on the site when a notice was served.

Lawyers representing the defendants argued that the land would regarded as "grey belt", not green belt, and the travellers' planning application had good prospects of success.

They also said travellers regarded their caravan as their home and said the cultural context had to be understood.

Lawyers representing the council said there had been no "occupation" of the site prior to the granting of an initial injunction.

They also said the stop notice and initial injunction had been breached - and complained about a "lack of candour" by defendants.

Kennedy said it was "not entirely clear" who owned the site.

The judge heard evidence that Martin Ward, who appeared to be the head of a traveller family, was the owner.

He added he had considered arguments about the welfare of children on the site and was told that Dacorum Borough Council had made accommodation offers.

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