‘Government rules preventing councillors from being sacked if they commit a crime are being reviewed after a parish councillor convicted of child pornography offences refused to resign.’
The Guardian, 22nd February 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘One of the largest local authority shared legal services could be created later this year if the proposed integration of HB Public Law and the legal services department at Buckinghamshire County Council goes ahead.’
Local Government Lawyer, 19th February 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Rules on Sunday opening hours for shops in England and Wales are out of date and need to be relaxed, a group of 200 MPs and council leaders has said.’
BBC News, 21st February 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The Local Government Ombudsman has criticised a council after members of its planning committee approved an application against an officer’s recommendation but failed to give reasons for doing so.’
Local Government Lawyer, 18th February 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A district council has won a Planning Court appeal after an inspector granted outline permission for a 103-dwelling development.’
Local Government Lawyer, 18th February 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Communities secretary Greg Clark has announced that he will consult on whether to reward good performance by certain council planning teams with the opportunity to increase their planning application fees.’
OUT-LAW.com, 16th February 2016
Source: www.out-law.com
‘Public procurement should never be used as a tool to boycott tenders from suppliers based in other countries, “except where formal legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions have been put in place by the UK Government”, ministers have said in new guidance.’
Local Government Lawyer, 17 February 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘New paragraphs were added to the UK government’s National Planning Practice Guidance (NPPG) last week clarifying that, in areas with a neighbourhood plan in place but without a five year supply of deliverable housing sites, neighbourhood plan policies relating to housing should not be considered up-to-date.’
OUT-LAW.com, 16 February 2016
Source: www.out-law.com
‘This was a quite extraordinary judicial review (or rather four joined judicial review claims with another 16 cases put in evidence in support) in which what was in the end at stake was not any remedy for the individual claimants – it was agreed that their individual issues had been remedied and the claims were academic on that basis – but whether there were systemic failings in Birmingham’s handling of homeless applications such that Birmingham:
generally, discourage and divert applications so that individuals are denied their statutory rights to have their situation properly inquired into and be given interim accommodation whilst those inquiries are being made.’
Nearly Legal, 14th February 2016
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘Ministers are changing legislation to give councils the power to extend trading hours in their local areas’
Daily Telegraph, 13th February 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘The Administrative Court has upheld an anti-social behaviour order prohibiting a man from engaging in any behavior likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any of a local authority’s employees for five years.’
Local Government Lawyer, 11th February 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A transgender couple who claim local villagers subjected them to a campaign of harassment won damages from the council after defamatory comments were published on its website.’
Daily Telegraph, 8th February 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Home Secretary Theresa May has admitted fearing she had created a “monster” by setting up police and crime commissioners in England and Wales.’
BBC News, 4th February 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘ A man who successfully fought a prosecution for taking his kids out of school for a family holiday has been fined a second time by the same council. Jonathan Platt made headlines in October last year when he avoided prosecution for taking his six-year-old daughter to Disney World in term time, arguing that her unauthorised absence did not mean she failed to attend school on a regular basis.’
Daily Telegraph, 3rd February 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘The power for a local authority to make an HMO declaration under s255, Housing Act 2004 is not commonly used. This power arises where a property appears to be an HMO in all respects save that it is not being used solely as an HMO. In that case the property will not fulfil the tests for an HMO under s254 of the Act but can be declared to be an HMO by the local authority of they reasonably believe that the property has “significant use” as an HMO. The declaration as an HMO can be appealed to the FTT (and from there to the UT) and that appeal operated by way of a re-hearing of that decision.’
Nearly Legal, 27th January 2016
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘Chichester District Council has successfully defended a judicial review challenge to a neighbourhood plan.’
Full story
Local Government Lawyer, 26th January 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘New research shows councils in Britain paid out thousands of pounds because of potholes, accidents and other workplace related grievances between 2013 and 2015.’
Daily Telegraph, 21st January 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Councils should be able to apply for and be granted magistrates’ approval electronically for access to communications data, the Local Government Association and trading standards organisations have said.’
Local Government Lawyer, 11th January 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Landlords in England are being reminded that there is less than a month to go before “right to rent” rules go live.’
Home Office, 8th January 2016
Source: www.gov.uk/home-office
‘A family court judge has come under fire after refusing to name a council that violated a man’s parental rights by taking his four-year-old daughter into care without a proper investigation.’
The Guardian, 10th January 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
© Inner Temple Library 2024