As concern mounts over street crime, the Court of Appeal has placed the preservation of the appearance of property over the safety of the people living in it.
The decision came in the second round of a court dispute in which an international lawyer is seeking the right to retain security gates outside his London home in order to protect his family.
Hamid Sabi, 54, whose wife and sister were mugged in the driveway of his family home at 14 Winnington Road, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London N2, has vowed to take his case to the European courts in his bid to win planning approval for a pair of security gates that he claims have brought a halt to the “catalogue of crime” at his home.
Seeking permission to appeal against a High Court decision of June 2001, which backed a planning inspectors decision that the gates should be removed, Mr Sabi, acting for himself, told Pill and Waller LJJ that since the electronically opened steel gates were installed on the property two years ago, no further crimes have been committed on the property while his neighbours continue to fall victim to it.
He said: “These are real concerns. For the past two years, we have had no incidents, while the rest of the area has suffered.”
Refusing him leave to appeal, and rejecting his claims that greater weight should be placed upon his right, under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to the peaceful safety and security of his home, Pill LJ said that he was satisfied that the planning inspector and the judge had followed the correct procedure, and had properly considered it in the light of the provisions of the Human Rights Act 1998.
PLS News 08/10/02
