Robert Tchenguiz
(Picture: (Alamy/PA))A court has ruled that traffic measures near the Royal Albert Hall infringed the human rights of a property tycoon who lives nearby.
Robert Tchenguiz, 61, took Westminster City Council to court over traffic arrangements around his luxury home near the world-famous concert hall, claiming it significantly restricted access to his home and breached his right to a private life.
Council officials had said the measures were to guard against “vehicle-borne terrorist attacks”, by “removing parked vehicles” from the “lengths of road immediately adjacent” to the hall.
The ruling states the measures meant that two gates were installed on either end of the tycoon’s street, which could only be opened by the Royal Albert Hall’s security staff.
But on Monday, High Court judge Mrs Justice Lang ruled that the measures unduly interfered with Mr Tchenguiz’s right to a private life because it prevented visitors to his home by car between noon and midnight.
She said that the anti-terror traffic measures also allowed police to stop Mr Tchenguiz from walking along the street to his home when it was considered necessary to reduce terrorism risk.
“In my judgement, these new restrictions on access to [address] are clearly an interference with the Article 8 rights of the Claimant and his family to respect for their private and family life and home,” she ruled.
She added that the council’s decision making was “flawed” and that the current scheme “operates in a manner which is disproportionate”.
Mr Tchenguiz is a well-known face in luxury property development, causing a stir when he bought MI5’s former headquarters in Mayfair for £140 million with the intention of turning it into the “highest-end hotel in the world”.
However, the judge rejected Mr Tchenguiz’s two other claims that council officials used the measures to create a parking area for the Royal Albert Hall and that officials had failed to properly consider the public sector equality duty.
Mrs Justice Lang said that while she accepted the Royal Albert Hall was using the street “as an overflow car park during restricted hours”, it did not follow that the orders were made for that purpose.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Tchenguiz said: “The anti-terrorism measures implemented were extreme and at the level in place for the House of Commons.
“It is difficult to see how they could be justified”.
Cllr James Spencer, Westminster’s Cabinet Member for City Management, told the Standard the council’s overriding concern had always been to ensure safety for Royal Albert Hall visitors and that it had sought to consult those living nearby.
“Like other landmark sites in the capital, the Royal Albert Hall is a potential terrorist target and our primary objective is to safeguard people who go there,” he told the Standard. “That overriding principle was upheld by the Judge.
“We will now consider the implications of the ruling. What we will not do is stop putting in anti-terrorism measures across a City which history has shown us terrorists are prepared to attack using vehicles as weapons.”
