If the High Court allowed residents of the UK's largest illegal travellers' site to escape eviction it would "send out the wrong signal" to the nation, a judge has been told.
A victory for the travellers of Dale Farm, near Basildon, Essex, "would strike to the very principles of the rule of law", said a barrister representing Basildon Council.
The council has been battling for a decade to remove the travellers, who now number some 400 individuals on more than 50 pitches, from the green belt site. The costly tangle of litigation already generated has been condemned by critics as a "farce".
The residents have launched a fresh, three-pronged attack on moves to evict them. They came to the High Court in London with a battery of legal arguments contained in three separate applications for judicial review to stop the clearance of Dale Farm.
But Reuben Taylor, appearing for the council, said the authority had done all it could to comply with planning and human rights laws and its decision to take direct action was not unlawful, unreasonable or disproportionate.
He told Mr Justice Ouseley: "At its heart these proceedings seek an order from the court that would enable the residents to stay at Dale Farm in breach of the criminal law."
The court was in effect being asked to sanction criminal conduct by granting planning permission for the residents. He said: "It is not the court's role to sanction criminal conduct - rather it is the court's role to uphold the law.
"If the court were to grant the relief sought it would send a signal to all in this country that they can move on to the green fields of this land and build their home in the knowledge that whatever steps the local planning authority may take, the courts will prevent enforcement.
"The court should be slow indeed to take a decision with such consequences, and slow indeed before it allows a claim that strikes to the very principles of the rule of law."
If the High Court allowed residents of the UK's largest illegal travellers' site to escape eviction it would "send out the wrong signal" to the nation, a judge has been told.
A victory for the travellers of Dale Farm, near Basildon, Essex, "would strike to the very principles of the rule of law", said a barrister representing Basildon Council.
The council has been battling for a decade to remove the travellers, who now number some 400 individuals on more than 50 pitches, from the green belt site. The costly tangle of litigation already generated has been condemned by critics as a "farce".
The residents have launched a fresh, three-pronged attack on moves to evict them. They came to the High Court in London with a battery of legal arguments contained in three separate applications for judicial review to stop the clearance of Dale Farm.
But Reuben Taylor, appearing for the council, said the authority had done all it could to comply with planning and human rights laws and its decision to take direct action was not unlawful, unreasonable or disproportionate.
He told Mr Justice Ouseley: "At its heart these proceedings seek an order from the court that would enable the residents to stay at Dale Farm in breach of the criminal law."
The court was in effect being asked to sanction criminal conduct by granting planning permission for the residents. He said: "It is not the court's role to sanction criminal conduct - rather it is the court's role to uphold the law.
"If the court were to grant the relief sought it would send a signal to all in this country that they can move on to the green fields of this land and build their home in the knowledge that whatever steps the local planning authority may take, the courts will prevent enforcement.
"The court should be slow indeed to take a decision with such consequences, and slow indeed before it allows a claim that strikes to the very principles of the rule of law."