In a judgment given on 10 October 2019, Mr Justice Jay dismissed the challenge to the London Borough of Haringey (Wards Corner Regeneration Project) Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) which had been made in the case of Burgos & Amayo v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government & Haringey LBC. 

The CPO includes the Seven Sisters indoor market.  Since around 2000, the market has attracted large numbers of traders from South and Central America, specialising in Latin American goods and produce, together with some traders from other regions of the world.  The main grounds of objection to the CPO included the effects on the Seven Sisters indoor market, the market traders and the Latin American community.  The claimants in the High Court challenge were seeking to represent the interests of the market traders. 

The claimants contended that a misdescription in the inspector’s report of the provisions of part of the related s106 agreement showed that the Inspector (and in turn the Secretary of State) had fundamentally misunderstood the requirements of the s106 agreement as they related to the market.  It was argued that this infected the consideration of human rights and equalities issues and whether there was a compelling case in the public interest to confirm the CPO. 

Mr Justice Jay accepted the defendants’ case that the misdescription was a slip in drafting and that, reading the inspector’s report fairly and as a whole, there was no doubt that the inspector had properly understood the provisions of the s106 agreement. 

Coverage of the hearing is available at:

https://rightsinfo.org/latin-village-demolition-traders-lose-bid-to-save-market/

https://rightsinfo.org/seven-sister-latin-market-legal-challenge/

https://www.thejusticegap.com/latin-village-redevelopment-would-decimate-community/

The transcript of the judgment is not yet available.

Richard Honey appeared for the successful Secretary of State, instructed by the Government Legal Department.