Dale Farm Travellers win reprieve until Friday after 'without notice' application

Travellers at Dale Farm in Essex have won a last-minute – but possibly temporary – reprieve after a High Court judge yesterday granted an injunction preventing Basildon Council from undertaking any physical measures to secure compliance with its outstanding planning enforcement notices.

Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart also blocked the local authority from cutting the electricity and all other utilities from the site unless they pose a danger “to life and limb”.

The injunction will be in place until a hearing to be held this Friday. It means Basildon cannot remove physical structures including cars and caravans.

Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart also ordered Basildon to present a schedule to residents outlining the proposed enforcement measures on a plot-by-plot basis. The residents will have to respond by 12 pm on Thursday.

The latest twist in the case followed a “without notice” application by Candy Sheridan to the court. The claimant – Mandy Sheridan after the claim was transferred by Candy – will be liable for Basildon’s costs in the even that the decision is overturned.

The judge’s ruling left Basildon “clearly disappointed and extremely frustrated”, according to Cllr Tony Ball, Leader of the Council.

He said: “We will be setting out our case robustly at Friday’s hearing when we are confident that our original position will be upheld. In the meantime we will be complying fully with the judges ruling."

The judge will consider whether there are remaining issues justifying a further extension of the injunction at 11.30 am on Friday or to overturn it.

The claimant has given an undertaking to take all practical steps to:

• “Permit access by Basildon, its servants or agents to discuss enforcement arrangements with any resident on the Dale Farm Site at Dale Farm, Billericay, Essex
• Use best endeavours to discourage any further protest by those who are not residents of the site or who are not owner of land within the Dale Farm site
• Procure the dismantling of barriers and/or obstructions that have been raised to prevent access onto the said site.”

Basildon highlighted the fact that “all of its enforcement notices had either not been appealed at the time of service or had been the subject of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate and or Secretary of State, when they had been dismissed (the enforcement notices had been upheld)”.

It had also been in extended correspondence over recent months regarding the notices, the council added.