The Court of Appeal has upheld a High Court ruling that provisions in Part I of the Caravan Sites Act 1968, which preclude security of tenure for local authority tenants living on council-owned caravan sites, are compatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court rejected an appeal by Albert Smith, who lives with his family at the council-owned Chase Travellers Site in Rush Green, Romford.
Jan Luba QC, counsel for the appellant, said that, although Smith was a permanent resident, he enjoyed neither security of tenure nor the further statutory rights enjoyed by other local authority tenants and licensees, and, as such, he had suffered discrimination.
Mr Luba argued that had Burton J “properly directed himself on the evidence before him, he could have concluded only that there was no objective or reasonable justification for the continuation of the discrimination”.
However, Pill LJ, who was sitting with Laws LJ, said that, on the evidence before him, the judge had been entitled to conclude that a present or potential nomadic way of life formed a precept for the lack of security of tenure provisions.
He added that there was no justification for permitting residents of caravan sites to have the same benefits of protection as residents of council houses.
R (on the application of Smith) v Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council Court of Appeal (Pill and Laws LJJ) 5 March 2003.
Jan Luba QC and Valerie Easty (instructed by The Community Law Partnership, of Birmingham) appeared for the appellant; the respondents did not appear and were not represented.
References: PLS News 6/3/03
