Additional caravan on Waltham St Lawrence site - council wins action

The Royal Borough has won a "small but significant victory" in the ongoing battle to remove an unauthorised caravan encampment from a site in Waltham St Lawrence.

In the High Court on Thursday the council successfully took legal action against the landowner, Mark Pickett, and one of the travellers camped on the site in Shurlock Road for breaching the terms of an original injunction by bringing an 11th caravan onto the site when the limit has been set at 10.

The court heard that the additional caravan was brought onto site on December 22 last year to replace an existing one which was faulty. But the replacement caravan remained on site for five days until 27 December, breaching the terms of the original injunction issued on 22 December 2009.

Royal Borough enforcement officers took the case to the High Court, and on Thursday Mr Justice Davis sitting in the Queen's Bench division ordered that the traveller, Mary Smith, had committed a contempt of court and fined her £75 in addition to awarding costs to the council. Mr Justice Davis made it very clear in his summing up that further breaches of this nature would be treated equally seriously.

Cllr Alison Knight, Cabinet Member for Planning and Development, said after the hearing: "Ever since the original injunction against this unauthorised encampment we have been working to bring an end to the misery and frustration suffered by local residents.

"We pursued the matter to the High Court as we felt strongly that the additional caravan was deliberately brought on to the site in clear breach of the terms of the injunction to provide additional accommodation over the Christmas period.

"We will not tolerate such obvious contempt of a legal ruling - and we are delighted that the judge felt the same. This is a small but very significant victory in this whole situation which has dragged on for nearly 18 months now - and we are now awaiting the outcome of the public inquiry held in January."

The council originally served an enforcement notice on the unauthorised encampment in December 2009 after 10 caravans moved onto the site without permission.

The notice was appealed by the landowner, Mr Mark Pickett, but the hearing in July was postponed due to the serious illness of the appellant's agent and re-scheduled for November - when it was again adjourned to allow more witnesses to give evidence.

A public inquiry into the appeal was eventually held over three days in January this year - and the council is currently awaiting the outcome of the inspector's report which will then go to the Secretary of State for a final decision.

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