Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 47
November 2002
Appleby and Others v. the United Kingdom (dec.) - 44306/98
Decision 15.10.2002 [Section IV]
Article 10
Article 10-1
Freedom of expression
Applicants denied permission to conduct campaign inside shopping centre: admissible
Article 11
Article 11-1
Freedom of peaceful assembly
Refusal of permission to collect signatures for a petition inside a shopping centre: admissible
The applicants are members of a local environmental group who complain that they were denied the right to meet and to impart information to the public in the centre of their town. The place to which they sought access was within an area owned by a private company, having been originally developed by a body established by law and then sold on in 1987. The town centre comprises hypermarkets, shops, adjacent car parks and walkways. A number of public services are accommodated within this area, in premises that belong to the relevant public body (police, post office, social security etc.).
The applicants formed an environmental group in 1997 to campaign against a decision by their local authority to grant planning permission to a college to build on part of a public playing field near the town centre. In 1998, the first applicant set up a stand in the entrance to the shopping mall in the town centre, seeking to alert the public to the loss of a public amenity and to gather signatures for a petition to the local authority. Security guards employed by the owner informed her that the company would not allow her or her assistants to collect signatures on any part of its property. A shop manager permitted her to set up her stand in his store in March 1998, and some more signatures were collected but permission was not granted the following month when the applicant wished to collect signatures for a further petition. The applicants wrote to the manager of the shopping centre seeking permission, but he indicated that the owner wished to maintain a stance of strict neutrality on political and religious issues. Consequently, permission to carry out a petition anywhere on the company's property was denied. The applicants continued their campaign in other, less-frequented parts of the town. They state that although their group was denied access to the town centre, other groups have been permitted to operate there, promoting various causes (Salvation Army, blood transfusion, British Gas etc.). In addition, the local authority ran a consultation campaign in the town centre in 2001 regarding the leadership choices for the future of the council, as required by the Local Government Act: admissible.
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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