Jan 16, 2020
A council significantly delayed completing an assessment of a complainant's social care needs, failed to complete a support plan before reducing his personal budget and failed to properly involve him in the assessment and support planning process, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has…
Jan 16, 2020
A local resident has seen all four grounds for judicial review rejected in her challenge to Shropshire Council’s planning consent for a sand and gravel extraction project.
Jan 15, 2020
The Wellbeing Committee of the Family Court at Birmingham has introduced a protocol this month with a view to professionals, practitioners, court staff and members of the judiciary being able to benefit from increased wellbeing, a reduction in unnecessary stress and the achievement of a better work…
Jan 15, 2020
A major criminal investigation undertaken from 2004 to 2005 that uncovered the systematic exploitation of looked after children mainly in the care system in the city of Manchester, led to very few positive criminal justice outcomes, an independent review has found.
Jan 15, 2020
The Campaign To Protect Rural England (CPRE) has lost an attempt to stop Herefordshire Council’s decision to grant permission for 11 blocks of polytunnels.
Jan 15, 2020
A company that operated a former nightclub where a customer died in a fall, has been ordered to pay £24,000 in fines and costs.
Jan 15, 2020
An unincorporated association does have capacity to bring both a judicial review and a statutory challenge, a High Court judge has ruled.
Jan 15, 2020
A Scottish housing association is to appoint a single provider to a legal services contract worth an estimated £700,000 over five years.
Jan 14, 2020
The London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames has agreed to carry out a full audit of its education provision and pay £17,500 to three families after the Local Government Ombudsman strongly criticised the council’s children’s service provider, Achieving for Children, for not effectively supporting…
Jan 13, 2020
Lord Reed has today (13 January) been sworn in as President of the Supreme Court, in succession to Baroness Hale.
Jan 13, 2020
A major housing association has launched the procurement of a legal services framework worth an estimated £1.8m.
Jan 13, 2020
DWR Cymru Welsh Water has appointed ten law firms to a legal services framework agreement estimated to be worth £14m.
Jan 10, 2020
LGSS Law, the social enterprise law firm owned by three councils, is on track to return to profit, its Executive Director has said, after its accounts for 2018/19 showed losses of more than £1.2m, up from £300,000 the previous year.
Jan 09, 2020
The Local Government Association last month issued an updated version of Probity in Planning, its guidance for officers and councillors.
Jan 09, 2020
Families face homelessness because of errors in the way some councils deal with appeals against decisions on housing benefit claims, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has warned.
Jan 09, 2020
A provider of homes for vulnerable adults is to seek judicial review later this month of an assessment issued by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) after the watchdog said its governance and financial viability were both inadequate.
Jan 09, 2020
The number of children in care has risen by 28% in the past decade pushing the system to breaking point, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.
Jan 09, 2020
A campaign group has threatened the governing body of a school on the Isle of Wight with a judicial review challenge in a dispute over reorganisation.
Jan 08, 2020
Leeds City Council has today (8 January) secured an injunction against a proposed homeless encampment which it claimed would create a “tent city” in a car park.
Jan 08, 2020
Manchester City Council is to enshrine the principles of ‘Martyn’s Law’, which is intended to improve security at public venues, into its future regulations.
Jan 08, 2020
Law firm Ashfords has advised Maidstone Borough Council on the acquisition of a long leasehold interest in a leisure park for circa £18.7m.
Jan 08, 2020
National law firm Weightmans has bolstered its London office with the addition of two lateral hires in its healthcare and regulatory teams.
Jan 07, 2020
A Ministry of Justice consultation on proposed changes to the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme (HPCDS) fails to address the fundamental issues of sustainability, the Law Society has claimed.
Jan 07, 2020
A former Reablement Officer at Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council has been prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Officer for accessing social care records without authorisation.
Jan 07, 2020
A defendant found guilty of five separate fly-tipping offences has been given a 30-month custodial sentence, following a prosecution brought by Portsmouth City Council.
Jan 07, 2020
The deadline has reportedly passed for property investment company Capital & Regional to appeal the High Court's decision to dismiss its application for a judicial review challenge over the grant of planning permission for a mixed-use gateway scheme that would help delivery of a new 23,000-seater…
Jan 07, 2020
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) has criticised the London Borough of Haringey after a young, single-parent family, including a disabled child, had to leave their home after the council miscalculated their housing benefits.
Jan 07, 2020
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has agreed to consider service resources and “the changes it needs to make to work in line with the law” after a Local Government and Social Ombudsman investigation into how a pregnant woman, who approached the council for help when she was made homeless, was…
Jan 06, 2020
Leeds City Council is to seek an injunction over a homeless support group’s plans to organise an encampment in a car park.
Jan 06, 2020
Lawyers in Local Government has launched the LLG Awards 2020, with a deadline for submitting nominations of 20th January.
Jan 06, 2020
A resident who claimed to be a ‘Freeman of the land’ has been fined £15,000 for refusing to remove an unlawfully built extension that covered the whole of his back garden.
Jan 06, 2020
The Troubled Families programme, which involves work with the whole family unit across local services, is to receive up to £165m in new funding, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced.
Jan 06, 2020
Councils have called for the introduction of tougher sentences for fly-tipping, after the latest figures showed it costs them £58m a year to clear up.
Jan 03, 2020
A new inquest into the death of 9 year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah will be held November or December this year, following the ordering of a new inquest by the high court last year.
Jan 03, 2020
More than 100 councils in England will share over £4m as part of a crackdown on criminal landlords and letting agents, the Housing Secretary has announced.
Jan 03, 2020
The London Borough of Hillingdon has lost a judicial review challenge over a decision by government ministers to allow High Speed Two’s appeal over the council’s refusal to grant approval for proposed works for the creation of an ecological mitigation area.
Jan 02, 2020
A landlord in Luton has been ordered to pay £27,000 at a sentencing hearing after previously pleading guilty to illegally managing a house in multiple occupation.
Dec 31, 2019
The West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority is to set up a specialist fire safety legal services framework agreement worth up to £480,000 over four years.
Dec 31, 2019
A homeowner who damaged a 90-year-old tree so much that it had to be felled has been fined more than £60,000 following a criminal prosecution by Chelmsford City Council.
Dec 31, 2019
A district council has successfully defended the grant of planning permission to itself for a multi-storey car park and other development on land in a conservation area, having previously lost an earlier judicial review challenge over a similar development.
Dec 31, 2019
An assessment carried out by a London borough did not constitute a discharge of its duties under the Care Act because it failed to include all the individual's needs, whether currently being met or not, a judge has ruled.
Dec 31, 2019
The Court of Appeal earlier this month granted the family of a Leicestershire teenager with special educational needs permission to appeal a High Court ruling dismissing their legal challenge over proposed changes to the county council’s school transport policy.
Dec 30, 2019
A local authority has won an appeal over a Family Court judge’s refusal of its application for interim care orders for two children.
Dec 30, 2019
East Suffolk Council has been threatened with a judicial review of its decision to grant planning permission for development of a nuclear power site.
Dec 30, 2019
The Welsh Government has highlighted draft legislation aimed at enhancing the ability of councillors to attend council meetings remotely more easily and job share cabinet posts.
Dec 30, 2019
The High Court has this month rejected a legal challenge to Southwark Council’s grant of planning permission for a major redevelopment of a large site that includes the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre.
Dec 30, 2019
Shropshire Council failed to take reasonable steps to acquaint itself with the history and legal status of land off a recreation ground when it granted planning permission for a development of 15 dwellings, a High Court judge has ruled.
Dec 30, 2019
The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) has issued a prior information notice on its plans to re-tender for a national legal services framework worth an estimated £65m.
Dec 30, 2019
A consortium of Scottish local authorities has appointed seven law firms to a legal services framework worth £12m.
Dec 28, 2019
Four members of the Government Legal Service have been recognised in the New Year’s Honours List 2020.
Dec 27, 2019
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has successfully defended a High Court challenge over its decision to close a day centre for adults with learning difficulties.
Dec 27, 2019
The government has stood down Lord Carlile from the role of Independent Reviewer of the Prevent programme in the face of a legal challenge.
Dec 20, 2019
Government plans to seek cross-party consensus “urgently” in order to bring forward the necessary proposals and legislation for long-term social care reform in England were among proposals unveiled in the Queen’s Speech yesterday, but concerns have been expressed that "we've heard it all before".
Dec 20, 2019
Three claimants are crowd funding a legal challenge against Oxfordshire County Council in a bid to remove the Oxfordshire Trans Inclusion Toolkit recommended to schools and educational settings, which they argue is “unlawful and damaging to children”.
Dec 19, 2019
A High Court judge has refused to grant Rochdale Council permission to challenge the findings of a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman on the way it pays special guardians.
Dec 19, 2019
The director of a lettings and property management agency who defrauded more than £230,000 from the landlords and tenants that were his clients has received a two-year prison sentence, following an investigation by Southampton City Council’s Trading Standards Service.
Dec 19, 2019
Judges, lawyers and others in the family justice system are “running flat out up a down escalator which, despite our efforts, is outpacing us”, the President of the Family Division has warned.
Dec 19, 2019
The County Court does not have jurisdiction to entertain a claim for repayment of allegedly overpaid council tax, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Dec 19, 2019
One of the leading public lawyers in the country, Michael Fordham QC of Blackstone Chambers, has been appointed as a High Court judge.
Dec 18, 2019
A campaign group is to mount a legal challenge over the Lake District National Park Authority’s decision not to use traffic regulation orders to stop recreational 4x4 and motorbike use of two lanes in the Langdale area.
Dec 18, 2019
A social landlord in the North East with 34,000 properties under management has appointed three law firms to provide property and development legal services.
Dec 18, 2019
Law firm Shoosmiths has bolstered its planning and environment team with the hire of David Mathias as a partner from Weightmans.
Dec 18, 2019
The former Legal Director of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Elizabeth Prochaska, will next month (6 January) join leading barristers’ chambers 11KBW.
Dec 18, 2019
The First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) has rejected an appeal lodged against the Information Commissioner by a member of Leeds City Council concerning a planning application for a field adjacent to his ward but in Harrogate Borough Council’s area.
Dec 18, 2019
The Sikh Federation UK is seeking permission to appeal a High Court judgment which dismissed its judicial review challenge of the Government’s decision not to include a tick box for ethnic Sikhs in the Census 2021 proposals.
Dec 18, 2019
A former Waverley Borough Council officer has been convicted of making false air quality readings.
Dec 18, 2019
A campaign group has so far raised £5,845 to try to mount a legal challenge to a planned car park in Canterbury.
Dec 17, 2019
Three cyclists are bringing a claim against Leicestershire County Council after they crashed on a ford on a road that they say the council failed to keep safe for cyclists.
Dec 17, 2019
A court has quashed Cornwall Council’s decision to refuse to provide funding that would enable a college to run a specialist three-year course for disabled young people on a five-day-a-week basis.
Dec 17, 2019
Govan Housing Association has named two law firms to provide legal services over the next five years.
Dec 16, 2019
A Deputy High Court judge has quashed a decision by a borough council to refuse a claimant’s second homelessness application, after it failed to take into account new medical evidence.
Dec 16, 2019
The Court of Appeal has rejected a parish council’s claim that Babergh District Council, when assessing the five-year supply of housing land, misdirected itself on the relevant policies in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
Dec 16, 2019
A Court of Appeal judge has criticised Wakefield Council for trying to pass responsibility for a child protection case onto Brighton & Hove City Council, whose involvement she described as “tangential at best”.
Dec 16, 2019
Essex County Council and the Governing Body of Sawyers Hall College were not ‘occupiers’ of a college building where a number of people suffered health problems from carbon monoxide exposure, the High Court has ruled.
Dec 16, 2019
The owners of an illegal hostel in Swanley have been ordered to pay £14,000 in fines and costs after being prosecuted for failing to comply with two planning enforcement notices.
Dec 13, 2019
A former City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council planning officer has lost a Court of Appeal case against the council over protected disclosures that arose in the course of a dispute over a sewer and outbuilding.
Dec 13, 2019
The High Court has ruled that the London Borough of Ealing acted unlawfully in its assessment of whether applicant AB was a ‘former relevant child’ within the meaning of section 23C of the Children Act 1989.
Dec 13, 2019
The owner of a former British Legion Hall cannot prevent it from being designated as an asset of community value, the First-Tier Tribunal General Regulatory Chamber has ruled.
Dec 13, 2019
The First-Tier Tribunal has upheld Winchester City Council’s decision to allow an area of overgrown land to be designated as an asset of community value.
Dec 13, 2019
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council must modify the headlease of a former office building to allow for conversion to residential use, the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has ruled.
Dec 12, 2019
Redbridge Council is understood to have become the first local authority in the country to strip a pub of its gaming machine licence after it repeatedly failed to stop children playing on them.
Dec 12, 2019
A group of 17 NHS foundation trusts have failed to persuade a High Court judge that they are charities and so eligible for substantial reductions on the non-domestic rates payable on the properties they occupy.
Dec 12, 2019
A Birmingham landlord has been fined nearly £20,000 after pleading guilty to failing to obtain a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) licence and to 13 breaches of HMO Management Regulations.
Dec 12, 2019
Law firm Trowers & Hamlins has advised Legal & General Affordable Homes on the successful conclusion of its selection process for housing management partners.
Dec 12, 2019
The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (Nuffield FJO) is to develop the first national, evidence-informed good practice guidelines for health and social work professionals involved in the process of removing newborn babies from their mother at birth for child protection reasons.
Dec 12, 2019
Sport England, UK Sport and Arts Council England have launched the procurement of an external legal services framework estimated to be worth more than £2.5m over four years.
Dec 11, 2019
The Supreme Court has by a 3-2 majority allowed appeals by Lancashire County Council and NHS Property Services over whether statutory incompatibility defeats an application to register land as a town or village green where the land is held by the public authority for statutory purposes.
Dec 11, 2019
The Court of Appeal has dismissed a council’s appeal over whether it acted unlawfully when it resolved to fix the fees for vehicle licences for taxis and private hire vehicles at an amount which included recovery of all or part of the cost of supervising the conduct of drivers licensed to drive…
Dec 11, 2019
Midland Heart has begun the procurement of a legal services framework worth an estimated £7.5m.
Dec 10, 2019
A Planning Court judge has rejected s.113 statutory challenges brought by two parish councils and a local resident against Guildford Borough Council’s adoption of its Local Plan.
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