Transport for London v Lee and Others
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Justice Cavanagh |
| Judgment Date | 24 February 2023 |
| Neutral Citation | [2023] EWHC 402 (KB) |
| Docket Number | Case No: KB-2022-003542 |
| Court | King's Bench Division |
[2023] EWHC 402 (KB)
Mr Justice Cavanagh
Case No: KB-2022-003542
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Andrew Fraser-Urquhart KC (instructed by TfL) for the Claimant
Oliver Brady (named Defendant) attended. No attendance or representation for the other Defendants
Hearing date: 24 February 2023
Approved Judgment
On 31 October 2022, Freedman J granted an interim injunction that had been applied for by the claimant, TFL, against 168 named defendants and against persons unknown. The defendants are supporters of, and activists connected with, Just Stop Oil (“JSO”). The injunction prevents the blocking, for the purpose of protests, of the roads/locations currently specified in Annex 2 to that injunction and to the Claim Form in these proceedings. There are approximately 23 of these. These are referred to as “the JSO Roads”. The JSO Roads are strategically important roads in London which form an important part of the TfL Strategic Road Network (“the GLA Roads”). GLA Roads are, very broadly speaking, the most important roads in Greater London, carrying a third of London's traffic despite comprising only 5% of its road network length.
A large proportion of those protests have involved protesters blocking roads by sitting down in the road and often gluing themselves to its surface and/or locking themselves to each other to make their removal more time consuming. In more recent times, groups of protesters have walked or marched in the roadway at a very slow pace, thereby impeding traffic.
The injunction granted by Freedman J continued an injunction which had been granted, without notice, by Yip J, on 18 October 2022. The period covered by Yip J's injunction expired on 23.59 on 27 October 2022. Freedman J heard argument from the claimant's counsel on that day and then continued the injunction for a short time until the return date of 31 October 2022. As I have said, he handed down his ruling on 31 October 2022. The order was sealed on 4 November 2022.
The injunction that was granted by Freedman J expires on 23.59 on 28 February 2023.
By an application notice dated 1 February 2023, the claimant seeks three further orders. These are that:
i) There be an extension of the injunction order, until trial or further order or with a backstop of 23.59 on 24 February 2024. The claimant also seeks orders for alternative service and third party disclosure;
ii) That there be an expedited trial, with a time estimate of 2 days; and
iii) That there be an Order under CPR r31.22 to use in this Claim any document, including any information therein, which has been disclosed to the Claimant by the Metropolitan Police in Claim No. QB-2021-003841 and Claim No. QB-2021-004122. And to use in those other Claims any document, including any information therein, which has been disclosed to the Claimant by the Metropolitan Police in this Claim. These claims are similar proceedings brought by the claimant against supporters of Insulate Britain, an organisation with similar aims to JSO.
None of the Defendants has entered an appearance or attended the hearing before Freedman J. Only one of the Defendants has attended today, Mr Oliver Brady, though the named defendants were served notice of the hearing, using the means provided for in Freedman J's judgment. Specifically, on 14–15 February 2023, the claimant's solicitor sent via post to each named defendant a letter containing the details of this hearing and stating that the claimant would provide upon request further evidence or other documents filed in these proceedings. That letter was accompanied by the N244 application notice for these applications and the draft Interim JSO Injunction Order including annexes. These documents were also all sent to JSO via email.
The claimant is represented before me, as it was before Freedman J, by Mr Andrew Fraser-Urquhart KC and Mr Charles Forrest. I am grateful to them for their assistance. As I have said, Mr Brady has attended the hearing today and I invited him to make submissions. It became clear that the main reason for his attendance, to his credit, is that he did not want the court to think that he was showing disrespect to the court by his non-attendance. He also explained that he had been arrested for actions which he says were outside the prohibited area. He says that he was told yesterday that the police will not take action against him in criminal proceedings. He is concerned that the civil proceedings will continue. He also gave me some explanation of the motivation behind the protests. As for those matters, I must stress that I am not dealing today with the question whether Mr Brady should be personally liable, or whether there should be a final remedy against him. That is a matter for another time and does not affect the question whether there should be a continuation of the injunction. As for the reasons for the protest, that is not a matter upon which the court should comment.
I have been provided with a witness statement of Mr Abbey Ameen, the defendant's solicitor, and with a number of other documents. I should add that one key document was not filed with the court. This was the written judgment of Freedman J, which is reported at [2022] EWHC 3102 (KB), in which he considered and dealt with most of the same issues that I am required to deal with, on much of the same evidence. I did not understand why this was not drawn to my attention specifically and filed with the court well in advance of this hearing. However, Mr Fraser-Urquhart KC provided an explanation, which was that the claimant's legal team was unaware that a written copy of the judgment had been published. Fortunately, I located the judgment of my own motion and read it at an early stage of my preparation for this hearing.
The factual allegations on the basis of which the injunction is sought, as they stood at 31 October 2022, are very fully set out by Freedman J in his judgment dated 31 October 2022. I will not repeat the summary of the facts which Freedman J has already given in that judgment beyond noting that Freedman J said this following:
i) JSO is a group which has been demanding that the government halt all future licensing consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the United Kingdom. It lends its name to a wider coalition — the JSO coalition — whose demands are (i) no new oil, (ii) tax big polluters and billionaires, (iii) energy for all, (iv) insulate our homes and (v) cheap public transport. J SO have stated that unless the government agrees to do what it requires, it will be forced to intervene and will take direct action, which it has now sought to do on a large number of occasions.
ii) There is an intersection between the groups Insulate Britain, JSO and Extinction Rebellion. Since September 2021, the courts have granted a number of other injunctions, similar in form to the injunction granted by Freedman J in these proceedings, against members and supporters of those organisations. These were obtained at the behest of other bodies, including National Highways Limited and HS2 Ltd. Many of the same named defendants appear in a number of the cases. In October and November 2021, the claimant was granted two urgent without notice interim injunctions against certain named defendants and persons unknown in connection with Insulate Britain protests which involved Insulate Britain protesters sitting down in and blocking GLA Roads. There is a large overlap between the defendants named in the TFL Insulate Britain injunctions and the defendants in this case;
iii) JSO protests have, until recently, largely involved protesters blocking highways with their physical presence, normally either by sitting down or gluing themselves to the road surface. The intention is thereby to prevent traffic from proceeding along the highway or to disrupt traffic. The effect has been to cause traffic jams and significant tailing back of traffic.
iv) It is said on behalf of the claimant that JSO's actions have been deliberately to block the highway and cause disturbance, rather than that being an incidental result of their protesting. It is also claimed that the protests have been disruptive and are capable of giving rise to putting the lives of those protesting and people driving on the roads at risk, in particular on the movement of emergency service vehicles. There is also the risk that other motorists and users of the highway, antagonised by the methods of JSO, will engage in violence in the context of their ordinary lives being disrupted. It is submitted that the protests have also caused economic harm, serious nuisance and a great deal of cost to the police and other public bodies, including local authorities, National Highways and the CPS.
v) As of 26 October 2022, 1,900 arrests had been made of JSO protesters since 1 April 2022. 585 of those arrests were made between 1 and 26 October 2022.
vi) Protesters have breached interim injunctions on multiple occasions and there have been committal proceedings.
vii) On 4 May, 9 May and 12 May 2022, JSO declared both Birmingham Crown Court and the prison at which its protesters have been held to be sites of civil resistance. Various instances are referred to of protests both around the court and in prisons.
viii) There were protests daily by JSO between 1 October and 31 October 2022., During that period, there were, on a daily basis, large scale protests at key areas of largely the central London road system; and
ix) On many occasions, JSO have been reported as saying that they will not cease their protests until their demands are met and that they will not be discouraged from doing so by injunctions from the court. The protests on roads in London continued,...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Transport for London v Persons Unknown
...and the judgments of Freedman J and Cavanagh J in the case which I refer to as TfL v JSO, reported at [2022] EWHC 3102 (KB) and [2023] EWHC 402 (KB) respectively. I also refer to the judgment of Lavender J in another NHL case dated 17 November 2021 [2021] EWHC 3081 (QB). In this judgment, ......
-
Shell UK v Persons Unknown
...be appropriate in respect of Persons Unknown in similar proceedings involving coordinated campaigns by protest groups. In TfL v Lee [2023] EWHC 402 (KB) at [32], Cavanagh J said: “Alternative service is necessary for the relief to be effective. Moreover… the Defendants already have a great......
-
Transport for London v Persons Unknown
...3 The background to these proceedings is set out in detail in the judgments of Freedman and Cavanagh JJ at [2022] EWHC 3102 (KB) and [2023] EWHC 402 (KB) respectively given when granting the Claimant interim injunctions in this matter. The general history of related protest activity undert......