P (permission to withdraw care proceedings), Re [2016] EWFC B2 (26 February 2016)

In the Family Court Sitting at Bromley - In the Matter of the Children Act 1989

The applicant local authority seeks to withdraw care proceedings issued in July 2015 in respect of T. b. 26.4.1999, who is now 16 years and seven months old. The 1st and 2nd respondents are her adoptive parents.

It is not disputed by any of the parties that the appropriate course is for these proceedings to be withdrawn. At a previous hearing on the 6th of November 2015 I made it clear that I agreed with this view and was willing to give the local authority permission to withdraw. However, the basis of that withdrawal is a contentious issue and this summary hearing has been listed to consider the basis upon which permission to withdraw will be granted. The local authority submits that it is likely that threshold is met, but the proceedings should be withdrawn on welfare grounds, as an order is not necessary. The parents submit that these proceedings should never have been issued as the local authority is unlikely to have been able to establish that threshold has been met.

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