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We are delighted that Greta Wood, which is situated immediately to the south-west of Burton in Lonsdale, has been registered as common land. Planning inspector Claire Tregembo has granted the society’s application to register as common about 5.7 hectares of land known as Greta Wood. The site is mainly wooded and is uncultivated.
Photo: Open Spaces Society
In 1968 the land, then known as Mill Hill Waste, was provisionally registered as common by West Riding County Council on an application made by Burton in Lonsdale Parish Council. Following an objection made by Bentham Parish Council (the adjoining parish), which related to the history of the land, the applicant withdrew the application and the provisional registration was cancelled.
However, part 1 of the Commons Act 2006 reopened the opportunity to rescue lost commons which were excluded in these circumstances. Under paragraph 4 of schedule 2 to the 2006 Act, Mill Hill Waste became eligible for re-registration. It is currently managed by the Woodland Trust and is now known as Greta Wood. The society’s application showed that the land is manorial in origin and that it remains ‘waste land of a manor’—that is, open, uncultivated, and unoccupied.
Says Frances Kerner, the Open Spaces Society’s commons re-registration officer: ‘The cancellation of the provisional registration of the land in 1971 without public scrutiny was most unfortunate. Thanks to the Commons Act 2006, the land will now have an additional layer of protection, and the public will eventually have the right to walk there.’