OneLambeth LTN Appeal Challenge

OneLambeth Anti-LTN Court Appeal Fundraiser

On Tuesday 5th April 2022 the Appeal Court judges ruled in favour of Justice Kerr's High Court Judgement but the fight goes on as we plan to take this to the Supreme Court and on Wednesday 6th April 2022 our legal team applied for statutory review of the permanent traffic orders for the Railton, Oval and Streatham Hill LTNs as part of the formal process of appealing to the Supreme Court and once the appeal is lodged it will take approximately 2 months (or more) to find out if it has been granted.

The QC leading our case has suggested
- there is a 35% chance that a Supreme Court hearing will be granted
- the Supreme Court case stands a 55% chance of success
- the judges were wrong on the point of law and its cases like this that the Supreme Court look at

If we are granted permission to appeal to the Supreme Court we would have approximately 6 months to raise the court costs and we would look to make this a national campaign.

Initial costs we need to cover for the Supreme Court appeal request are £1200 for the statutory review requests plus £1500 for the appeal request.

Lambeth council have requested payment of their costs which were limited to £10k and they have refused to set up an instalment plan and have requested the payment be made in full within 56 days which means payment is required by 31st May 2022 hence the target for this fund has been adjusted to include all of the aforementioned costs.

On Monday 28th June 2021 High Court Judge Justice Tim Kerr ruled in favour of Cllr Claire Holland and Lambeth Council and against
Sofia Sheikh (a disabled resident and Covid Coma survivor representing Lambeth residents) in our challenge to the undemocratic
and discriminatory imposition of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) in Lambeth.

*The story behind the case, together with Q&As, can be read about here https://gofund.me/45908112 on our original funding page.
Please remember to click ‘read more’.

On the same day as his ruling, Justice Tim Kerr immediately granted leave to appeal against both the Statutory part of the case relating to the Emergency Traffic Orders (ETOs) AND the Judicial Review part of the case, related to the Council Delegated Decision on LTNs.
He specifically stated the appeal would pertain to ground 1 of our initial claim - failure of Lambeth Council to adequately consider
disabled residents and others under Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). The judge also said there that the appeal had a real prospect of
success.

It is extremely unusual for a High Court Judge to grant leave to appeal against his OWN ruling. Usually claimants need to apply to the Court of Appeal to get permission to appeal any ruling and this first step is often extremely difficult. The fact that we have been given leave to appeal immediately against the entire judgement is very positive and relates to recognition of the National significance of the impact of LTNs on disabled residents and others across the UK. An appeal win could influence how LTNs are implemented across London and other UK cities, and even whether the schemes are allowed to continue.


Our barrister (Tim Buley, QC of Landmark Chambers) advised us of the following:

1. There is a good prospect that an appeal would be successful as the Appeal Courts often view legal points in a different light to the High Court.

2. The costs would be approximately £14,500 (including £5000 cost of losing the appeal) - the costs would normally be much higher but
the Legal Aid Authority, who have covered some of the costs of the case to date are likely to continue to provide money towards and
appeal.

3. There is a small possibility that the European Human Rights Commission would fund the case and our legal team will enquire about this.

After asking the OneLambeth community and other supporters whether there was appetite for an appeal, the response was
overwhelming support to continue the fight. We instructed our solicitor to prepare the paperwork for an appeal (deadline 16th July).

Our appeal is likely to be heard in the Appeal Court early Autumn with a judgement by October/November time.