District to defend JR over decision to suspend live animal movements at port

A district council has vowed to defend judicial review proceedings over its decision to suspend temporarily live animal movements from a port in its area.

Thanet District Council received formal notification of the challenge on 5 October. The case is being brought by two companies and a sole trader that are based in the Netherlands.

The claimants are seeking to overturn the decision about the movement of live animals at the Port of Ramsgate.

They are also demanding:

• A mandatory order requiring Thanet to lift its ban on the shipment of exports.
• Damages for breach of European law.
• An interim order requiring the council to re-open the Port for live animal movements in the meantime, pending determination of application for judicial review.

In a statement, a spokesman for Thanet said: “The council has received the advice of a leading counsel that its actions in imposing a temporary live animal export ban at Ramsgate are lawful. It therefore intends to mount a vigorous defence of its actions.”

The legal challenges have been brought by Barco de Vapor BV, owner of the Joline, Onderwater Agneaux, a trader in livestock meat, and Johannes Quirinus Wouterius Maria Onderwater, a transporter.