Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
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20.They also relied upon High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd v Persons Unknown [2024] EWHC 1277 (KB) and Transport for London v Persons Unknown & Ors [2025] EWHC 55 (KB) as applied and approved in Valero Energy Ltd v Persons Unknown [2025] EWHC 207. 21.Due to this being an application without notice, the Claimants have complied with full and frank disclosure and raised the competing arguments that in both TfL and Valero, the court was dealing with orders that had been made for a period of 5 years, subject to an annual review. 22.In the current application, the order was granted for a year and will expire by effluxion of time at the end of that year, absent application for renewal. The Claimants accepted that it therefore could be argued that, in those circumstances, the court should start de novo and perform a full assessment. 23.Further, when granting the Injunction, Freedman J expressly considered the purpose of the review hearing in light of Wolverhampton – where he warned of a tick-box exercise- as well as in these specific proceedings ([2024] EWHC 1828 (KB at paragraphs 55-59). He rejected the meaning within “a review” in this case and said that “a more careful evaluation is required in relation to the matter going further.” Freedman J also raised the need for the future court to scrutinise “very carefully” that the local authority actions in implementing a formal, negotiated stopping policy. Finally, Freedman J expressly said that it would be better not to refer to a future application for a renewal as a review and that it is a “renewal application rather than some type of review”. 24. This is not a case where I would be undertaking a potential undermining of the judgment of Freedman J but rather following his requirement that there is close scrutiny of whether there remained a compelling need for the granting of a further injunction.
25.In these circumstances, I consider the case should be heard de novo and so invited submissions in line with it being a de novo hearing. In addition, the
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