Cambridge City Council has won a High Court injunction today banning unauthorised commercial punting operations from pushing off on land it owns.
High court judge Mrs Justice Whipple today approved a sweeping court order banning tourist operator Traditional Cambridge Tours and ‘persons unknown’ from trespassing on various council-owned locations along the River Cam that have been used as unauthorised punting stations.
The court order is the latest development in a long running battle between the council, unauthorised punting operations, touts, and ‘pushers’, who are people who operate punts.
In 2013, the council introduced bylaws to prevent touting in public places after they became concerned that the touting that was taking place had reached such an aggressive level that it amounted to harassment.
The council runs its own licensed punting scheme in which it allows the use of its land as punt stations on various places along the River Cam. Licensed operators pay rents to the council and also pay business rates.
Traditional Cambridge Tours, however, isn’t a licensed operator and has been running its operation mainly from a site on Garrett Hostel Lane, by Trinity College.
The council has built a fence that hinders access to the punts, but that has not worked. In March a floating pontoon appeared at the site without permission, making access to the punts much easier.
In her ruling, the judge said that Traditional Cambridge Tours’ use of Garrett Hostel Lane amounted to trespass for commercial purposes, and she “saw no impediment” in granting a court order stopping them.
However, she said that a blanket ban on “persons unknown”, which, in practice, means ‘anyone’ was a more serious matter.
She said that such injunctions should only be granted if there is a strong possibility that, unless restrained, the subject of the order would do something that would cause the council irreversible harm that couldn’t reversed or adequately compensated with damages.
This, she said, was such a case.
“I consider the threat of future trespass by [Traditional Cambridge Tours] at other locations beyond Garrett Hostel Lane and/or by other operators…. by means of unauthorised commercial punting to be both imminent and real,” her judgment said.
“For the council to have to wait for such trespass to occur before applying of an appropriate order to restrain it would not amount to ‘compete justice’,” she said.
“I grant the council’s application for an interim injunction to prohibit trespass by means of unauthorised commercial punting operations at any of the claim locations by the first defendant and persons unknown,” she said.
The other locations covered by the court order are: Jesus Green, Thompson’s Lane, Jubilee Gardens, Sheep’s Green, Granta Mill Pond, Quayside and Silver Street.
The injuction will last until there is a full trial of the case, or another court order, or at a date in the future that has yet to be set.
Cambridge City Council v Traditional Cambridge Tours Limited and others
QBD (Whipple J, DBE) 25 May 2018
