Breach of planning control — Use of land for travelling showmen — Enforcement notice — Injunction refused — Whether injunction should be granted — Appeal by local planning authority dismissed
The defendant is the owner of a site at Bowleswood Farm. Headley, Bordon Camp, Hants, which is used as a winter stop-over for travelling showmen. An enforcement notice had been issued in respect of the site in 1985 requiring its discontinuance as a site for a mobile home. In January 1990 the plaintiff council issued summonses against the defendant in respect of a breach of the enforcement notice; they also issued enforcement notices which have been appealed. On January 22 1990 the defendant applied for planning permission for the use of the site as a showmen’s winter quarters. The plaintiff’s application pursuant to section 222 of the Local Government Act 1972 for an injunction to restrain the use of the site by the defendant was dismissed by Mr Patrick Bennett QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the Queen’s Bench Division (February 6 1990). The council appealed.
Held The appeal was dismissed.
An application for an injunction must be determined in accordance with the American Cyanamid principles. There is a serious issue to be tried. It is not in dispute that the defendant’s activities are in breach of planning law. The issue to be tried is whether it is a proper case for the grant of a permanent injunction. Damages are wholly inappropriate and an inadequate remedy for a local authority in the circumstances. The balance of convenience does not support the grant of an interlocutory injunction. No permanent or long-term damage to the land will be done pending the outcome of the planning and enforcement appeals; these appeals will shortly be heard; the occupiers of the site have nowhere else to go and winter is upon the parties.
American Cyanamid Co v Ethicon Ltd [1975] AC 396 applied.
James Findlay (instructed by Sharpe Pritchard) appeared for the appellants; and Sebastian Head (instructed by Fox & Kent, of Chichester) appeared for the respondent.
