Irish Traveller wins key legal battle against North Somerset Council
An Irish Traveller represented by Community Law Partnership and with support from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, has won a key legal challenge against a discriminatory housing policy after North Somerset Council dramatically settled the judicial review on the day before the court case.
The challenge was to the “local connection” requirement contained within the Council’s housing allocations scheme, which covered all Gypsy/Traveller site allocations in the borough. The effect of that requirement was that the Irish Traveller, who could not point to a local connection to North Somerset, was denied entry to the Council’s housing register and therefore could not be included on their Traveller pitch allocation scheme.
Speaking to The Travellers’ Times, a spokesperson for the Equalities Commission said:
“Local authorities must carry out their functions in accordance with the Equality Act to ensure that the impact is fair and consistent and does not discriminate.
“North Somerset’s refusal to put the claimant on their housing register because she did not have a local connection to the area was unfair and discriminatory. Travellers regularly move from place to place making it very difficult for them to establish local connections.
“We are pleased the Council has understood this and agreed to place the claimant on its housing register and review its housing allocations scheme.”
The claim was brought on a number of grounds, including in particular that the Council had failed to pay due regard to the Equality Act 2010 and that the local connection requirement was discriminatory towards Gypsies and Travellers.
The Traveller told the court that many ethnic Gypsies and Travellers still lived a nomadic lifestyle (in the absence of sufficient permanent sites to meet their accommodation needs) and that as a consequence the local connection requirement – which the council uses to allocate housing to non-Travellers - was likely to have an adverse effect on proportionately more Gypsies and Travellers than members of the settled population.
The Travelers’ case was supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which agreed that it was difficult to see how a local connection requirement in a housing allocations scheme could ever be justified for ethnic groups whose members are nomadic.
In the event the case settled on the day before the trial of the claim and on 2 February 2016 Mr Justice Collins approved an order by which the Council undertook to place the Claimant on its housing register; and to undertake a review of its housing allocations scheme and its effect on Gypsies and Travellers to ensure it complied with Equalities laws.
The judge also ordered the Defendant Council to pay full costs.
The Claimant was represented by Marc Willers QC (Garden Court Chambers) and Joseph Markus (Garden Court North), instructed by Parminder Sanghera of the Community Law Partnership.
Community Law Partnership are keen to challenge other local authorities who impose a local connection condition on site allocations. They can be contacted on their free Gypsy and Traveller planning, eviction and accommodation legal advice helpline on 0121 685 8677 / http://www.communitylawpartnership.co.uk/