Council wins High Court injunction to block work at South Ockendon site


Thurrock Council has obtained an interim High Court injunction to stop unauthorised work in the Green Belt at South Ockendon.
It is the latest intervention by the council in a bid to limit illegal work on a travellers’ site there.
The council announced that, after a hearing on Thursday, August 6, it had been granted an interim High Court injunction “preventing any further unauthorised development on more than 100 acres of Green Belt land to the north of Buckles Lane and to the south of Mollands Lane, South Ockendon”.
It said a further court hearing would take place this year to determine if the temporary injunction would be made permanent.
Buckles Lane hosts a large travellers’ site and the interim injunction is the latest move by the authority to block unauthorised development on it.
Other injunctions had been secured in February 2019 and June 2018, the latter “to prevent expansion of the Buckles Lane site”.
Rob Gledhill, leader of Thurrock Council, said: “Our environmental and planning enforcement officers working in partnership proactively identified an area of Green Belt land where unauthorised development was being carried out.
“The teams obtained evidence of this development, reacting quickly, and working closely with our legal team, to obtain an interim injunction preventing any further unauthorised development at the site.
“Being granted this injunction gives us the powers we need to protect our land more effectively and should act as a deterrent for any future areas of land that might be at risk of unauthorised development.”

 

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