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We have published the third edition of Getting Green Registered, our handbook on how to register land as a town or village green in England and Wales.
The book includes the changes to the law, made by the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 in April, which make it harder to register land as a green in England. The greens bible guides potential applicants through the thickets of legislation and case law and advises on how they can have the best chance of winning a green.
Land can be registered as a green if local people can prove that they have used it for at least 20 years, for informal recreation, without being stopped and without permission. They need to follow a process to achieve this and make an application to the registration authority (county or unitary council).
Once registered the land is protected from development by nineteenth-century legislation.
There have been many changes to the law, and many legal cases, including judgments in the House of Lords and Supreme Court, since we published the second edition by John Riddall in 2007. It is now more difficult to register a green in England because the government has outlawed applications on land which is threatened by development. It is therefore vital that local people identify now any land which might be registrable and get in their application before the land is threatened.
Our book takes you through the process, step by step. It helps you to decide if the land is eligible for registration and then, if it is, guides you on what you need to do to make an application and see it through, with advice on handling a public inquiry too.
The book makes what might seem a complex process much easier, and endeavours to answer all the commonly-asked questions. We hope that people will buy it and use it to help them register their green.
The book can be downloaded here. The cost is £10 to members, £11 to non-members.