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Two further Supreme Court permission decisions have come to our attention. In the first, the Supreme Court refused permission to appeal against a decision of the Administrative Court in the case of Atkinson and Billington v Supreme Court of Cyprus [2009] EWHC 1579 (Admin). Mr Atkinson and Mr Binnington were sentenced in their absence by the Supreme Court of Cyprus in 2008 to three years’ imprisonment for manslaughter. The two men were in a car driven by their uncle, Julian Harrington, in Protaras, Cyprus, in 2006 when it hit a moped. They were originally acquitted but the Supreme Court of Cyprus overturned the acquittal. The background to the case is summarised by Fair Trials International here.
The Administrative Court dismissed two men’s appeal against the order of the District Judge that they be surrendered to Cyprus to serve the sentences. On 10 November 2009 the Supreme Court refused them permission to appeal. The case is reported by the BBC here. There are also reports of the case in the Braintree and Witham Times, the East Anglian Daily Times and the Famagusta Gazette.
The second permission decision was in the planning case of Langley Park School for Girls v London Borough of Bromley [2009] EWCA Civ 734. The case concerned a dispute between two schools in Bromley which share the same site. Langley Park School for Girls had challanged a planning application by Langley Park School for Boys. The girls school claimed the plans would have had a detrimental impact on their facilities and surrounding fields. The application for judicial review was dismissed but Langley Girls School succeeded in the Court of Appeal which decided that the planning decision was seriously flawed. On 5 November 2009 the Supreme Court dismissed an application by the defendant, Bromley Council, for permission to appeal. This decision is reported on the School’s website and in the local press here.