Recently in Planning Law Category

Heritage campaigners have threatened Sheffield City Council with legal action after it unveiled plans to demolish a wing of a former hospital, a grade II listed building, to build a new department for engineering, reports the BBC.

The legal row concerns the Edwardian wing of the former Jessop Hospital for Women in Sheffield, built with a donation from steelmaker Thomas Jessop. It was opened in 1878 and closed in 2001.

Since its closure the building has spent some time in disuse, before being converted in 2009 to house the University's Department of Music.

The travellers residing on the illegal site at Dale Farm in Basildon, Essex, are continuing their fight against the local council to remain in their homes by applying to English Heritage to give a part of their site protected status.

Following the council's eviction notice, which gave the residents of the largest illegal site in the UK until the 19th September to move out, an injunction was issued preventing the bailiffs from forcefully evicting the travellers.

Legal appeals are now taking place at the High Court, but in the meantime the residents of Dale Farm hope to gain protected heritage status for the scaffolding gateway at the entrance to the site.

After a decade-long planning-law battle between travellers and Basildon council, the council have finally gained the legal power to evict the residents of an illegal site.

The travellers, many of whom own their land but do not have planning permission for their homes, will face evictions from midnight tonight (31 August).

But one traveller, 72-year-old Mary Flynn, is determined to fight the evictions by applying for an injunction through the High Court in order to stop the council evicting the 80 families living at Dale Farm.

Opinion on graffiti is greatly divided with many thinking it works of art while many others consider it vandalism. City councils in the UK spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax money every year cleaning graffiti from walls and buildings, but are they mistakenly washing away future heritage assets?

Bristol University think so.

In July, a piece of graffiti by renowned artist Banksy called Gorilla in a Pink Mask was scrubbed away by council cleaners who were under the impression it was 'regular' graffiti.