The High Court has ordered a group of travelling showmen to leave their land on a plateau in a special landscape area of Kent. Burnton J has ordered them off the land despite their claims that they have nowhere else to go.
In what he said was the first case of its kind, the judge granted an injunction to Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council after the large group of travelling showmen, whose families live on plots on the land north of Sotts Hall Cottage, Crouch Lane, Platt, failed to move away within the one-year time limit laid down by a council enforcement notice.
The injunction, the judge said, was the first to be made under section 187b of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. It means that the travellers may face criminal prosecution if they remain on the land, where they keep lorries, vans and substantial equipment, which are visible from miles around.
Although he recognised that his decision would cause “great hardship” to the showmen and their families, the judge said that the order was not disproportionate, bearing in mind the unlawful use of the land in clear breach of planning control.
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council v Davis and others Queen’s Bench Division (Stanley Burnton J) 14 May 2003.
References: PLS News 15/05/03
