THE Bitou Municipality’s legal battle with trader Sean Walmsley looks set to drag on for a few more months.
He has lodged an application for leave to appeal against a court order to remove his fast food stall from the Beacon Isle Hotel parking lot.
The Bitou mayoral committee resolved yesterday to ask the sheriff to enforce the Cape High Court order the municipality obtained for Walmsley to move by October 31.
But his bid will probably buy him time to continue operating through the peak December season – all he ever asked to do in the first place.
Bitou described Walmsley as a “public nuisance” when it applied for the eviction order last month, claiming he had refused to vacate the site after his one-month lease expired at the end of December last year.
Walmsley has appointed an attorney to represent him in the application, which will be heard by Judge Essa Moosa, who heard Bitou’s eviction bid. He will be asked to decide if there is any possibility another court might come to a different conclusion.
Moosa ruled last month that Walmsley “continued to operate on the site illegally” after his lease expired. He rejected the trader’s claim that a tacit lease agreement came into existence because he had paid rent money to the municipality after December.
Walmsley said yesterday it had never been his intention to confront the municipality, but Bitou’s legal action had forced him to defend himself. “All I ever wanted was to be left alone until after December, and now it seems that is what will transpire in any case.”
Source: The Weekend Post
