ROOF Blog

Shelter has won an historic legal case at the European Court of Justice on behalf of a homeless woman with four small children. The case was wholly funded by the Government’s legal aid services. Shelter represented Nimco Hassan Ibrahim, a mother of four children, after her housing application was turned down by Harrow Council. The case, which lasted three years, finally went before the European Court of Justice who ruled in favour of Mrs Ibrahim. Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb said: ‘Shelter did not fund this case, as claimed in a daily newspaper, and none of our funding or donations from the public or corporate sponsors has been used. The case was wholly funded by legal aid through the Legal Services Commission.’

Peter Boggis, 78, has spent tens of thousands of pounds building earth barriers to protect his home at Easton Barriers, near Southwold, Suffolk, and those of his neighbours which are threatened by erosion to the cliffs on which they stand. But Natural England, the Government conservation agency, wants the fossil-rich cliffs to wear away, exposing strata of soil and rock for study. Mr Boggis had carried out the work carried out on the sea defences without planning permission, and the Court of Appeal said in its judgement that the only lawful course now open to Mr Boggis was to apply for permission and go through the correct planning process. Mr Boggis, whose house, The Warren, is 302ft from the cliff edge, says his defences have so far saved more than eight acres of land and four properties ‘at no cost to the nation’ and that his efforts would, if anything, slow down the expected loss of habitat on the wildlife site.