Man who took Plymouth City Council to court over renaming of square ordered to pay more than £8,000 in legal costs
Danny Bamping lost his appeal against the local authority's decision to rename Sir John Hawkins Square after Plymouth Argyle player Jack Leslie
The businessman who took Plymouth City Council to court over renaming a square after a black footballer has been ordered to pay legal costs of more than £8,000.
Danny Bamping lost his appeal against the council’s decision to replace the name of Elizabethan slave trader Sir John Hawkins with Plymouth Argyle player Jack Leslie on the square near the city’s magistrates’ court.
Following a hearing in November and judgement in December, District Judge Jo Matson who handled the case has now ruled that Mr Bamping must pay the city council’s costs of £8,302.44. The judge rejected his arguments that the council’s claim was unjust and unreasonable, and found that he had not proved he could not afford to pay.
Mr Bamping argued in court that the council’s decision to rename the square was racist and a “knee-jerk reaction” to the Black Lives Matter Movement, which resulted in anti-racism protests following the death of George Floyd in police custody in the United States in May 2020.
He claimed the local authority had failed to properly follow its own policies and the process laid out for street naming in the Public Health Act 1925, arguing it only allowed councils to “alter” a name rather than change it.
He claimed the council failed to properly consider the history of Sir John Hawkins, and said the square was the wrong place to honour the footballer, arguing an unnamed road near Argyle’s stadium where a statue of the player was due to go was a better alternative.
But the council defended the appeal, saying the renaming was already under consideration before the Black Lives Matter movement. It said it had complied with the law and its policies, and had justified and explained the decision, gained the approval of Mr Leslie’s family and had no duty to carry out further consultation.
The judge rejected Mr Bamping’s arguments and found in favour of the council, which was represented by a barrister, after a half-day hearing of evidence at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court in November.
The businessman, who has appeared on the TV show Dragon’s Den, says he is planning to challenge the judge’s ruling on his appeal by seeking a judicial review in the High Court.
He has launched an online crowdfunding campaign to raise £5,000 to pay for his future legal action and is also planning to challenge the appeal costs decision. By Friday more than £1,700 had been pledged.
The square, in the historic Barbican area of the city, was named after Sir John Hawkins in the 1980s after a redesign. A second cousin of Sir Francis Drake, the seafarer came from a prominent Plymouth family in the Elizabethan era.
He became Plymouth’s MP, a vice-admiral in the victory over the Spanish Armada and treasurer of the Royal Navy, and is widely considered to be England’s first slave trader.
London-born Jack Leslie played for Plymouth Argyle in the 1920s and 1930s, and is understood to have been dropped from the England squad because of his colour. He joined Argyle in 1921 and stayed for 14 years, scoring 137 goals in 401 appearances.
A crowdfunding campaign to put up a statue of the player at the club reached its £100,000 target in August last year.
Mr Bamping, who lives in Hillfield Avenue, Mutley, told the court in evidence about his ability to pay that he had an income of £115 a week from a family business, no savings, and had debts of around £18,000, including almost £6,000 in council tax arrears.
He said on Friday after the costs decision: "Not one pound of any money raised in the crowdfunder will be used to pay Plymouth City Council. I already owe them £6,000 in council tax – I have not paid council tax for 12 years.
"I am never going to pay any of that money that the court says I must pay. I am not going to pay it, because I haven’t got it. I am going to take this to the High Court, and I am going to win. It will prevent any other local authorities renaming any road."