South Oxfordshire District Council v Smith & Ors

Defendants who deliberately breach a planning injunction prohibiting unauthorised development or change of use of land (here by stationing caravans and using the land as a residential caravan site) are liable for contempt of court. An injunction restraining "development" as defined by planning legislation is sufficiently clear and certain to found a committal even though it requires cross-reference to statute, particularly where the defendants had access to planning advice; and continued unauthorised occupation amounts to an ongoing breach rather than a single past act. The court will not permit deliberate flouting of its orders to create "facts on the ground."