Teresa Baker, R (on the application of) v Reigate and Banstead Borough Council

Facts

The claimant, Teresa Baker, is an Irish traveller who lives with her extended family in caravans on the back and middle plots of land known as Pickett's Yard, Salfords, Surrey; the front plot is occupied by Berry Collins, a Romani Gypsy, and her family. In about April 2022 the occupiers carried out operational development and changed the use of the site to a Gypsy/Traveller caravan site, both without planning permission. A retrospective application made on 15 April 2022 was refused on 21 October 2022, and Reigate and Banstead Borough Council issued two enforcement notices on 31 May 2022, one directed at the operational development and the other at the residential use. Injunctions under section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 were also obtained. The conjoined planning and enforcement appeals were heard on 7 and 8 March 2023 and dismissed by a Decision Letter dated 11 May 2023, the Inspector giving substantial weight to Green Belt harm and great weight to the intentional unauthorised development. The families remained on the site. A second retrospective application, made on 15 April 2025 and relying on the new grey belt policy in the National Planning Policy Framework and the new Planning Policy for Traveller Sites, was met by a decision dated 12 June 2025 declining to determine it under section 70C of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The claimant sought judicial review; Mould J refused permission on the papers on 23 February 2026 and Sir Peter Lane, sitting as a High Court Judge, granted it on 2 April 2026.