Showmen ordered to leave their own land

Davis and others v Tonbridge and Mailing Borough Council CA TLR 5 March

Because of the difficulties travelling showmen have in finding suitable sites for their caravans and fairground equipment, the claimant bought a green belt agricultural site in a special landscape area on which she laid out access drives and parking areas and to which she and other showmen brought their caravans and fairground equipment. They did not seek prior permission from the council because they knew that it was almost bound to be refused as involving serious policy breaches. In upholding the judge’s grant of an injunction requiring the showmen to leave the site, the Court held that the judge had been entitled to conclude that the environmental damage and the deliberate unlawful conduct of the claimants outweighed the hardship that the injunction would undoubtedly cause. The injunction was not a disproportionate response to the continuing unlawful use of the site.