The High Court has refused a judicial review into the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to house asylum seekers, with a resident’s £25,000 legal claim tossed out by Justice Holgate this morning. Migrants are expected to return to the barge on 19th October, now the legionella outbreak has been contained. By which point the barge will have been empty for 68 days…

Today’s pointless legal case was proposed by Mayor of Portland and local councillor Carralyn Parkes, who argued before the hearing:

“If you or I want to put up a porch at our home, we need to apply for planning permission. It’s wrong that the Home Office does what it likes without complying with the same rules. If the Home Office had applied for planning permission, they would have had to consult with local people – but we never got the right to have our say. I believe that planning permission would have been refused.”

She crowdfunded £25,000 in a Jolyon-esque attempt to shift the barge, and lost. Eight days until its doors are re-opened…