“While the evidence of inability to find somewhere else to live is, no doubt, the honest estimate of the defendants who give that evidence, in my judgment these enterprising and resourceful people, given a measure of time, will be able to find something which meets their needs.”
“Given the size of this operation, the order ought to be such that, within three months of today, all these defendants should have left. It seems to me that it would be unsatisfactory and undesirable to accept the defendants' request that the court tie the dates of departure to the outcome of a planning appeal when we do not know when it is going to come about. All the other considerations, in my judgment, point in a different direction. There will be an order requiring these defendants to leave within three months of today. It is important that it is understood that that means that all defendants should leave within three months of today. That no doubt requires that a number of them will leave at different times between now and the end of that three month period.” 12. Thus Mr Brown can fairly say that Mr Mackie did not know how long it would take for the appeal result to be known, but Mr Harper is right to say that Mr Mackie regarded that date as irrelevant, since he rejected the idea of waiting for the outcome of the appeal in principle. Now the indication, according to a witness statement from Mr Eaton of the defendants' solicitors, is that enquiries of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions indicate that the decision should be forthcoming “some time from mid-February”. 13. Separately Mr Brown can legitimately say that the judge allowed three months on the basis that, despite the pessimistic views of the defendants, something would be found to meet the defendants' needs. In relation to this there is evidence from Miss Montgomery and from the defendants of very extensive efforts, none of which have borne fruit. There seems to be a real shortage of space useable for these purposes in the southeast of England as compared with the demand. It looks as if a combination of factors contribute to this. On the one hand show people want more space, both more, and more settled, living space, and also more space for the large number of rides and other equipment that they now have, and there may also be an increase in the number of show people wanting such space, the way of life being passed down from parents to each of several children, generation by generation. On the other hand, land values in the southeast are such that even the smallest parcels of what would otherwise be suitable land fetch prices for development way beyond the capacity of show people. 14. A Circular 22/91 from the DETR concerned with travelling show people, reviews the planning considerations, and provides guidance with a view to reducing the problems apt to arise of which the present is an example. Among other things local planning authorities are urged to be open to discussion of show peoples' needs, both in relation to development control and when formulating local plans. The claimant has a local plan which was adopted in April last year in relation to which it notified the Showmen's Guild of the process, and thereby gave it the opportunity to request that some provision be made for the needs of travelling show people in the plan. In the absence of any response to that and of any applications for permission for such sites (other than the application under appeal) since 1980, the plan contains no express policy for travelling show people and states that proposals for new sites, or for development on the two existing sites that there are within the area of the claimant, will only be acceptable if consistent with the policies in the plan. 15. The decision in South Buckinghamshire DC v. Porter shows that I should not consider the merits of the planning decisions taken, and Mr Mackie rightly did not go into that. The terms of his judgment are such as to allow the submission that if, for example, it had been forecast that the result of the appeal would be known at the beginning of February, he may have been prepared to suspend the injunction for four months instead of three, to allow for the possibility of success on the appeal, which may make it possible for the defendants to continue to use the site. If, however, he had had the evidence before him as to the failure of extensive searches for other accommodation which I have, it seems to me unlikely that he would have allowed as much as three months for the defendants to leave the site. He refers on page 6 of the transcript to the defendants organising “what will inevitably be their eventual withdrawal from the site unless the planning situation changes”