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LEGISLATION IN ENGLAND
AND WALES
Town and village greens are the essence
of rural England and Wales, where cricket is played in the lengthening shadows of a summer
evening, and villagers dance round the maypole.
In fact they are much more than that,
and very varied.
A green is any land on which a significant number of the
inhabitants of any locality, or any neighbourhood within a locality, have
indulged in lawful sports and pastimes, for 20 years, as of right.
Section 15
of the Commons Act 2006 replaces and clarifies the previous law on
registering land as a town or village green. The new section differs from
the previous provisions in the following ways.
- It limits the ways in which a landowner can
defeat an application. It provides a period of grace after the use of land, as
of right, has been ended by a landowner, during which an application can be
made.
- It ensures that a landowner granting permission for
use of the land when there has already been 20 years use as of right cannot
defeat an application.
- Any period of statutory closure of land, for example during
foot-and-mouth disease, is now
disregarded when calculating the 20-year period
of use. For the first time landowners will be able to dedicate land as a
village green.
- It allows landowners voluntarily to register land as a
green.
We believe there to be about 3650 registered greens in England
and about 220 in Wales, covering about 8150 and 620 acres respectively.
The Inclosure Act 1857
and the Commons Act 1876, protect village greens from enclosure and
encroachment.
If you wish to apply to register land
as a green you must:
- first check with your registration
authority (county or unitary council) whether it is already registered. If
it is not, ask the council for Form 44 and the regulations contained in the
Commons (Registration of Town or Village Greens) (Interim Arrangements)
(England) or (Wales) Regulations 2007.
- If the council does not have it
(which it should), contact the
Open Spaces Society or go to
Defra's website (http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/issues/common/town-villagegreens/index.htm)
or the Welsh
Assembly Government's website.
- You will need to show on a map the
area you wish to register and the locality or neighbourhood in which those
using the green ‘as of right’.
- You will need to show that a
significant number of those people who use the land are local people.
- You will need to show that those using
the green have done so without permission, without being stopped or seeing
notices which stop them, and without being secretive about it, and that between
them they have done this for a continuous period of 20 years.
- You should submit your application to
the registration authority for determination. The authority may hold an
independent hearing (indeed you should encourage it to do so). If it does
register the land as a green, this should protect it from development and local
people will have the right to continue to enjoy the land for informal
recreation.
Our book
Getting Greens Registered
gives all the details.
The recent
House of Lords' judgment on the Trap Grounds case has far-reaching
implications for the registration of greens (See
our latest news story).
You may like to read the
Implications of the House
of Lords ruling following the Sunningwell case on 24 June 1999, or visit our
National News page to obtain a copy of the judgment.
Updates can be
found at
Ladydale saved from houses
and
Update on the Washington case
(Sunderland City Council v Beresford).
See also the High Court decision over
Widmer End.
Read our
explanation of Court of Appeal ruling (21 July 2004) on the procedure for
registering greens under section 13 of the Commons Registration Act 1965 in
the case of R (on the application of Whitmey) v Commons Commissioners
[2004] EWCA Civ 951.
And purchase our book:
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Our Common Land
New 6th edition
Paul Clayden MA
The law and history of common land
and village greens
ORDER
NOW
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