Injunction or ASBO? A council’s dilemma, by Nicholas Dobson
Before the advent of s 222 of the Local Government Act 1972 (LGA 1972),
local authorities were not considered competent to bring public interest proceedings in their own name. This was despite s 276 of the Local Government Act 1933 (LGA 1933), which provided that: “Where a local authority deem it expedient for the promotion or protection of the interests of the inhabitants of their area, they may prosecute or defend any legal proceedings.”
Case law authority (latterly Prestatyn UDC v Prestatyn Raceway Ltd [1969] 3 All ER 1573) held that the terms of s 276 were not sufficiently explicit to enable a local authority to bring proceedings in its own name. At common law, what was expected in these circumstances was that the attorney general would institute proceedings to uphold public rights and duties either acting ex officio or through a “relator action”, ie one in which the attorney general proceeded to assert a public right on the relation of a private person or a corporation.
So
