Wolverhampton City Council and others v London Gypsies and Travellers and others [2023] UKSC 47
Supreme Court, 29th November 2023
This is the leading authority on so-called newcomer injunctions: injunctions intended to bind people who cannot be identified when the order is made and who may only later carry out the prohibited act.
The case arose from injunctions obtained by local authorities against future unauthorised Gypsy and Traveller encampments. A number of the claims relied on section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, alongside other statutory and private-law powers.
The Supreme Court confirmed that the court does have power to grant newcomer injunctions, whether expressed as interim or final orders. But this is an exceptional remedy. The authority must show a compelling need which cannot adequately be met by other available remedies, and the court must build in safeguards for people who were not present to oppose the application.
The safeguards identified by the Court include full and frank disclosure, reasonable advance publicity of the application, clear and understandable wording, generous liberty to apply to vary or discharge the order, and strict geographical and temporal limits. For Gypsy and Traveller cases the Court expressed considerable doubt about borough-wide injunctions or orders lasting significantly more than a year without review.
For planning enforcement, the important point is that section 187B does not provide a shortcut simply because future defendants cannot yet be named. The court still has to be satisfied that the order is necessary, proportionate, just and convenient in the particular circumstances.
See Planning Geek’s guides to planning injunctions, unauthorised encampments, Gypsy and Traveller sites and human rights and planning enforcement.
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