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Campaigners from Honiton in East Devon are delighted that Littletown Green has been registered as a village green. The four-acre field has been enjoyed by local people for informal recreation for decades.
With support from us, Rosemary Kimbell (a member of the society), her husband Alan and neighbours Mike Allen and Andy Cox gathered evidence from 72 local people, who had used the field for recreation for up to 60 years—for walks and talks, jogging, bird-watching, picking blackberries, and enjoying this quiet green space in a busy market town.
The land is owned by East Devon District Council but it has on a number of occasions been threatened with development. Most recently, Honiton Town Council obtained consent to use the field as allotments, despite huge local opposition and a petition of over 700 signatures.
The town council objected to the application to register the land as a green but the district council, as landowner, did not. Devon County Council’s commons registration officer and county solicitor recommended to the county’s Public Rights of Way Committee that the land be registered, and on Thursday 3 March, the committee voted unanimously to register the land.
Says Nicola Hodgson, our case officer: ‘This is excellent news. We were pleased to support and assist the applicants in their thorough and painstaking work of making the application. They had good evidence of recreational use by local people over a long period. We are delighted that all their hard work has paid off and the green is now registered.’