Could planning permission unmoor Bibby Stockholm barge?

The UK’s High Court has started hearing a case that will determine whether Dorset council has the power to enforce planning authority over the Bibby Stockholm barge, where roughly 400 asylum seekers are being held while waiting for their claims to be processed. The case, brought by local mayor Carralyn Parkes but in a personal capacity, argues that the council’s boundaries include Portland Harbour and that local authorities and residents should therefore have been consulted about the barge’s placement. This is the second time Parkes has gone to court over the Bibby Stockholm, previously losing a request for judicial review of the Home Office’s decision-making process. Now Parkes and her lawyers say the council could have enforced planning laws to stop the barge being moored in the harbour. The council says the barge falls outside its planning jurisdiction. Genuine question: what’s at issue here – the law of the land or the law of the sea?