Legal victory allows piles of rubbish to remain

A homeowner has won a legal victory overturning a council order demanding he tidy up piles of rubbish from his Surrey garden. Mr Wallace was served a notice under Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act by the council in May, Guildford Crown Court heard. He was ordered to remove the plastic bottles, tins, newspapers and other waste, cut back overgrown vegetation and leave the land clear and tidy at his Westcott homes. But he appealed against the decision, at first unsuccessfully at magistrates’ court, and then at the higher court. In allowing the appeal, Recorder Christopher Purchas said the evidence ‘does not go far enough to show Mr Wallace was interfering with the amenity of other people who live in the locality’.