Travellers on Adjoining Land

Lippiatt and Another v South Gloucestershire Council (CA [1999] 4 All ER 149)

The defendant council owned a strip of land which for three years was occupied by a group of travellers. The claimants were tenant farmers of adjacent land who alleged the travellers had frequently trespassed on their land, obstructed access to a field and carried out various activities on it, including dumping rubbish, leaving excrement and tethering animals. In allowing the appeal against the striking out of the claim on the grounds it had no prospect of success, the court held the occupier of land could be liable in the tort of nuisance for the activities of his licensees even though those activities took place on the claimants’ land. The basis of liability is that the land owner has created the nuisance by allowing the troublemakers to occupy his land and use it as a base for causing unlawful disturbance to his neighbours. Where the offenders are licensees of the council or trespassers, and can therefore be moved on, the council may be found to have adopted the nuisance by failing to exercise its power to turn out the travellers once their habitual misbehaviour became apparent. Alternatively, it could be said that the nuisance becomes that of the council in leaving the travellers on the land.