A Blow for Landowners

Landowners will be disappointed to note yesterday's decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Secretary of State v Meier, which overturned the helpful decision of the Court of Appeal in 2004 of Drury.

Drury sanctioned the making of orders in favour of substantial landowners (in that case The Forestry Commission) of orders covering not only the parcel of land currently the subject of an unauthorised occupation by travellers but also other parcels of land belonging to the same landowner within a reasonable radius which had not been occupied but which were considered to be under threat of unauthorised occupation.

Unfortunately the Supreme Court (again in a case concerning The Forestry Commission) has ruled that such orders may not be made in future, at least until the Court rules are amended.  Only the land currently occupied may be the subject of an order.  For larger farms and estates this means that there is no pre-emptive legal steps that can be taken against the time when a group of travellers is moved on.  This means that landowners are forced to depend upon the strength of their physical defences against unauthorised occupation and the informal intelligence network that warns of approaching convoys and individuals.  Given the reality of the threat and the difficulty of defending oneself against such occupation, this is indeed unfortunate.

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Ashfords LLP is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The information in this note is intended to be general information about English law only and not comprehensive. It is not to be relied on as legal advice nor as an alternative to taking professional advice relating to specific circumstances.