Residents win legal fight over rat runs

The residents of two of London's smartest garden squares have won a High Court victory against rat runners.

People living in Montpelier and Trevor Squares, which lie between Brompton Road and Knightsbridge, claim their lives are being made a misery by commuters taking shortcuts.

They thought their troubles were over when Westminster council installed sophisticated electronic barriers at the entrances to the squares.

The barriers could be raised only by residents with a key - forcing hundreds of commuters and delivery drivers on a detour taking 20 minutes through 15 traffic lights.

But, after protests from taxi

drivers, motoring groups and a neighbouring council, Westminster removed the bollards.

Furious residents challenged the decision, applying for a High Court Judicial Review.

And yesterday Mr Justice Munby compared Westminster officials with those in the fictitious Dad's Army town of Walmington-on-Sea. He ruled that it had failed to consult properly with residents before removing the bollards, and ordered a fresh consultation.

Mr Justice Munby also told Westminster to pay residents' legal costs of ?48,000, as well as its own costs - taking the bill to around ?75,000.

The judge criticised the council's "lamentable" and "cavalier" conduct in ignoring court orders to produce vital evidence for the hearing.

"[Westminster] is not the Walmington-on-Sea UDC making its first-ever visit to an unfamiliar court," he said. "It is an experienced litigant."

He added: "It has treated the court, but more importantly the claimant - which after all represents some of its own citizens and council tax payers - in a cavalier and almost contemptuous fashion." Richard Reynolds, chairman of the Montpeliers and Trevors Association, which brought the action, said after the ruling: "We welcome today's judgment and look forward to the council carrying out the obligations that have been imposed upon it."

A spokesman for Westminster said: "We accept the judgment and will be consulting on the traffic arrangements in the area again."