A local authority accused of operating a policy of “automatic eviction” from unauthorised gypsy sites has defeated a legal challenge.
In a landmark ruling, the High Court rejected a claim by a group of travellers that Crawley council had unlawfully evicted them from their camps on a virtually weekly basis for 16 years, without offering them a permanent home.
The case is thought to be the first to consider whether a policy of continual eviction is unlawful.
The eight travellers, led by James Casey, sought judicial review of the council’s ongoing attempts to evict them from Dalewood Gardens and Bewbush West playing fields, where the group had moved their caravans in September 2005.
They claimed that they had been “driven” to camp in unauthorised gypsy sites, due to the fact that Crawley had no authorised sites and the national shortage of available sites, but had been moved on by the council 30 to 40 times a year.
However, Burton J said that, in seeking a possession order, the council had considered all material considerations, including recent government policy guidance on managing unauthorised camping, and had not “acted perversely”.
He held that even if the council had evicted the travellers on “very many occasions”, those evictions had accorded with policy.
“Such evictions are inevitable where there are no authorised or acceptable sites. I am satisfied that this case, in which the claimants argued that the council had a closed mind and a policy of automatic eviction, is unsustainable on the evidence,” he said.
“The fact that the claimants had been evicted in the past and were liable to be evicted from elsewhere in the future gave rise to no entitlement to occupation.”
The judge added: “The absence of an alternative site, either permanent or temporary, does not bar a local authority from obtaining possession against a trespasser on an unauthorised site where its decision to do so is otherwise reasonable.”
The court declined to rule on whether travellers could defend possession orders under the Article 8 right to respect for their homes, on the ground that the House of Lords is due to rule on the issue later in the year.
R (on the application of Casey and others) v Crawley Borough Council Administrative Court (Burton J) 1 March 2006.
Charlotte Kilroy (instructed by Christian Khan) appeared for the first to fifth, seventh, ninth and tenth claimants; Josephine Henderson (instructed by the legal department of Crawley Borough Council) appeared for the defendants; Daniel Stilitz (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, as an interested party; the remaining claimants did not take part in the hearing.
References: EGi Legal News 01/03/06
