Blackpool Borough Council v Alice Ester Beale & Ors

Facts

Blackpool Borough Council, the local planning authority for the Blackpool area, brought a claim for a permanent injunction under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 against the freehold owners of a site at the junction of School Road and Midgeland Road in the Marton Moss area. The First Defendant, Ms Alice Ester Beale, the Second Defendant, Mr Laurence Boswell, and the Third Defendant, Mr Otheyboy Boswell-Jones, are all Romani Gypsy travellers and members by birth or marriage of the extended Boswell family, which has a long-established connection with Blackpool. They bought the site, designated as open land in the Blackpool Local Plan and lying within the Marton Moss Conservation Area, on 4 May 2022 for £30,000. Pre-application advice for four bungalows was negative, but the land was cleared, fenced, hardcored and serviced with electricity and water, and enforcement notices were issued in June 2024. A planning inspector dismissed the appeal against the enforcement notice on 20 December 2025, requiring compliance by 12 April 2026. Instead the site was subdivided into four plots and the Beale and Boswell-Jones families moved caravans onto it. The Council obtained a without notice injunction on 15 May 2026, extended to trial on 5 June 2026 with directions for an expedited trial. A planning application for four traveller pitches was made on 1 June 2026.