Order against future trespass

Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v Drury CA TLR 15 March

Illegal squatting by travellers in England’s woodland causes the Forestry Commission real trouble, but the process of eviction has to be conducted with due compassion. The defendant, together with a number of other travellers, wrongfully took up occupation of Fermyn Woods, land owned by the Forestry Commission. The judge granted a possession claim against the trespassers, not only in respect of Fremyn Woods but 30 other areas of woodland within a 20-mile radius because of the claimant’s concern that the defendant’s entourage might decamp and move into occupation of any of those other areas. The defendant appealed, not against the order for possession of Fermyn Woods, but against the inclusion of other areas not occupied by her. In allowing her appeal, the Court said that a landowner who sought a possession order against trespassers in occupation of a part of his land and could establish a danger that, if evicted, they would decamp to some other area of his land might be entitled to have that further area included in the terms of the order. But the court should make a possession order by reference to an anticipated trespass only in exceptional circumstances and on being satisfied that there was a real danger of the trespassers decamping to the other areas. Here there was no evidence linking any of the occupants of Fermyn Woods with past or present occupation of any of the other areas. There had been no wrongful occupation of any of the other areas for more than three years. The evidence was insufficient to establish that there was a real danger that the defendant would decamp to any one or other of the 30 areas. The nature of the order was that it took effect against all persons found on the land whether or not defendants in the proceedings, which continued to reinforce a cautious approach to defining the area covered by it. The line was to be drawn by adopting the process of a common sense assessment of the whole situation, taking account of past and likely future conduct of the trespassers.