Councils with existing Green Space injunctions have little to fear from Bromley ruling: lawyer
Boroughs with properly prepared ‘green space’ preventative injunctions against occupation of public land have little to fear from a recent High Court ruling which removed parts of an interim injunction obtained by the London Borough of Bromley.
That view has come from Steven Woolf, of Hardwicke Chambers, who has secured a number of such injunctions.
He said that while Leigh-Ann Mulcahy QC - sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge - “heavily diluted” Bromley’s injunction by removing sections concerned with camping on public land, it was not overturned in its entirety and still protects sites from waste deposits and fly-tipping.
Mr Woolf said: “There is no principle of law to the effect that decisions such as that by Ms Mulcahy QC have retrospective effect on decided cases. In other words, her decision cannot be retrospectively applied to all previous injunction cases, so as to set them aside.”
He said all previous ‘green space’ injunctions were unappealable as they had been ordered by the High Court after full consideration of the specific facts and circumstances as applied in that individual case.
Mr Woolf recommended that boroughs considering such an injunction should - as a result of the Bromley case - give careful thought to the welfare needs of the Gypsy and Traveller community and what land within the borough or further afield they can occupy when passing through.
Bromley had applied to extend an interim injunction prohibiting camping on 171 open spaces and car parks.
This was opposed by London Gypsies and Travellers, which said such borough-wide injunctions were disproportionate and discriminatory to the accommodation needs of their communities.
The High Court granted Bromley a more limited injunction preventing people from fly-tipping, depositing substantial amounts of waste, or entering parks and car parks in vehicles for waste disposal or fly-tipping, but removed the requirement restraining the occupation of the council’s open spaces by caravans.
