Claimant wins permission to take youth cuts case to Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has given a claimant seeking to stop cuts to youth services permission to appeal.

In July last year a High Court judge dismissed the judicial review challenge by Aaron Hunt, a 21-year-old with ADHD and learning difficulties, against cuts being made by North Somerset Council.

Hunt, who is represented by law firm Public Interest Lawyers, had sought declaratory relief and a quashing order in relation to the relevant item in the authority’s 2012/13 Revenue Budget dealing with financial provision for youth services.

However, Lord Justice Toulson last week gave the claimant permission to appeal the judgment of Mr Justice Wyn Williams.

Hunt was given permission to put all of his appeal points before the Court of Appeal. They include that:

• the council and the court could not assume that councillors had read critical equalities documentation when it was not in the paperwork put before them;
• the council needed to consider what the impact on specific equalities groups would be, once it had recognised that vulnerable groups generally would be impacted by its decision; and
• the council could not use objections from the public that it had not done enough to consider equalities impact as evidence that councillors had given sufficient consideration to equalities.

Public Interest Lawyers said it would be seeking an expedited hearing.

Daniel Carey, a lawyer at the firm, said: "I am pleased that the Court of Appeal has recognised the importance of the issues in this case, particularly as it is clear that the council’s private funding model is not working.

“Court of Appeal hearings are relatively rare in cases of this kind. We must now focus on presenting the best case we can for the young people of North Somerset."

A spokeswoman for the council said: "This is part of a legal process and we will be defending our decision when the matter is heard. It would not be appropriate to comment further at the moment." 

Philip Hoult