Without Gypsies and Travellers having anywhere safe to stop, these injunctions criminalise the nomadic way of life.
Friends, Families and Travellers finished off 2023 with a judgment handed down from our Supreme Court challenge against ‘wide injunctions’, which are often used against Gypsies and Travellers living on roadside camps. This followed a series of other legal challenges in the High Court and Court of Appeal.
So, you may be wondering, what are these injunctions and why are they a problem?
Well, alarmingly, this is a power being used to target minority ethnic communities and centuries-old cultural traditions – they are injunctions (sometimes applied across whole local authority areas) banning Gypsies and Travellers from setting up camp.
This happens despite a national shortage of sites and safe stopping places, and despite a huge range of other eviction and enforcement powers already used against Gypsies and Travellers.
The injunction orders are not specific to named defendants but granted against ‘persons unknown’, capturing any newcomers after the injunction has been granted. To be in breach of an injunction is a serious matter, potentially facing a fine and imprisonment.
Without Gypsies and Travellers having anywhere safe to stop, these injunctions criminalise the nomadic way of life.
I recall the first area-wide persons unknown injunction back in 2015, covering some 320 parcels of land within Harlow, Essex, and since then, we saw a growing trend of local authorities applying for, and being granted these prohibitive injunctions. Lord Justice Coulson aptly described it as a ‘feeding frenzy’.
Despite there being a clear need to challenge these discriminatory injunctions, no individual Gypsy or Traveller claimants were in a position to take a legal challenge against a local authority. Often with the families we work with through our frontline National Helpline and Outreach services, when you’re busy trying to make ends meet, taking legal action against a local authority isn’t realistic or possible.
Thankfully, after securing vital support with legal fees from a Community Interest Company, and the commitment of an excellent legal team, we were able to take part in the legal challenges.
We partnered with London Gypsies and Travellers and Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group, and got permission to intervene in a case in the High Court in 2021 (a win!), followed by a Court of Appeal case (a loss!).
Determined to continue to challenge anti-Traveller injunctions, we successfully sought permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision in the Supreme Court.
Importantly, we were also granted a Protective Costs Order (PCO), which allowed us to pursue a public interest case without the risk of unaffordable costs. We’ve been told that the grant of a PCO is a novel feature of the case and potentially creates a blueprint for other charities seeking to take part in future newcomer injunction proceedings.
A PCO is a novel feature of the case and potentially creates a blueprint for other charities seeking to take part in future newcomer injunction proceedings.
By national standards, we’re a relatively small charity doing big work and going to the Supreme Court as Appellants felt a little daunting at points, especially as we faced 10 local authorities with the Secretary of State for Transport and HS2 as interveners. But we had a great legal team, with Chris Johnson from Community Law Partnership, Richard Drabble KC of Landmark Chambers, Marc Willers KC, Tessa Buchanan and Owen Greenhall of Garden Court Chambers, who were able to guide us smoothly through the process.
Having lawyers committed to social justice and understanding the issues facing Gypsies and Travellers, has been a key component for our journey on such strategic litigation cases.
It was also valuable to be supported by some of the bigger civil liberties and human rights charities, with Liberty and Friends of the Earth intervening to support the case, recognising the assault on Gypsy and Traveller communities but also the threat to protest rights, where these injunctions are also used.
Liberty and Friends of the Earth intervened to support the case.
For ‘the little charity that could’, Baring Foundation’s support has been crucial towards helping us on our journey of using a legal-based approach to confront injustice, which has now seen us taking challenges in the Supreme Court.
So, on to the important bit – the outcome of the Supreme Court case.
Well, whilst the Court ruled that these kinds of injunctions could be granted by a court, the judgment gave some useful guidance directed at local authorities seeking wide injunctions. It outlined the need for ‘compelling justification’ for such an order to be sought and granted by the Court.
The Supreme Court recognised that wide injunctions have a negative impact on Gypsies’ and Travellers’ ability to pursue a nomadic way of life, highlighting the continuing lack of site provision. The Supreme Court noted:
“We have considerable doubt as to whether it could ever be justifiable to grant a Gypsy or Traveller injunction which is directed to persons unknown, including newcomers, and extends over the whole borough or for significantly more than a year. It is to be remembered that this is an exceptional remedy, and it must be a proportionate response…”
In terms of what we have learned from this – legal remedy is sometimes the last remaining form of redress and a worthwhile pursuit, with real value in collective legal action to jointly take a case.
But these challenges will continue, as this is just one attempt in a long line of attempts by government and local authorities to target and suffocate nomadic existence and to demonise and vilify Gypsy and Traveller communities.
Our next legal intervention is against the draconian powers in the infamous Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which is due to be heard at the end of January 2024. Watch this space!
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About Abbie Kirkby
Abbie is Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Friends, Families and Travellers, a leading national charity that works to end racism and discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people and to protect the right to pursue a nomadic way of life.
