The applicant sought to leave to appeal against refusal of his challenge to the registration of land as a green. Held: The 1965 Act did not limit the registration of greens to those which were registered by 3 January 1970. The Commons Commissioners have no jurisdiction in a dispute arising under section 13. The 1969 … Continue reading Whitmey, Regina (on the Application of) v the Commons Commissioners: CA 21 Jul 2004
A common right of grazing which was quantified but not related to the ability of the land to sustain it was capable of existing in gross, and was therefore severable entirely from the land to which it related. The severance was no necessary prejudice to the land. Robert Walker LJ doubted ‘whether it is correct … Continue reading Bettison and Another v Penton and Another: CA 22 Jan 1998
Land had been registered in part as a common. The council appealed. Held: The rights pre-existing the Act had not been lost. The presumption against retrospectively disapplying vested rights applied, and the application had properly been made. The claimant was entitled to register part only of the area of land original included. An application was … Continue reading Oxfordshire County Council v Oxford City Council, Catherine Mary Robinson: ChD 22 Jan 2004
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Waksman QC J considered dicta in the Sunningwell case and concluded that what he called the ‘predominance test’ no longer applied in relation to ‘neighbourhood within any locality’ under section 22(1A) of the 1965 Act. He said: ‘there is no reason now to assume that the user required for class (c) rights should be the … Continue reading Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Deluce and Others: Admn 23 Mar 2010
A recreational area was claimed to be a common. The council considered that there was evidence, which it accepted, of an implied licence, thus enabling the inference to be drawn that the use by local inhabitants for statutory purposes had not been as of right. Held: Time could not begin to run in the acquisition … Continue reading Regina v City of Sunderland, ex parte Beresford: Admn 14 Nov 2000
Land had been used as a park for many years. The council land owner refused to register it as a common, saying that by maintaining the park it had indicated that the use was by consent and licence, and that prescription did not apply. Held: Qualifying user having been found, there was nothing in the … Continue reading Regina v City of Sunderland ex parte Beresford: HL 13 Nov 2003
Appeal as to rights of grazing over common land. Judges: Lord Justice Rimer Citations: [2009] EWCA Civ 201, [2009] 24 EG 86, [2009] 12 EG 99 Links: Bailii Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Land Updated: 09 December 2022; Ref: scu.324647
Application had been made to register as a town or village green an area of land which was largely a boggy marsh. The local authority resisted the application wanting to use the land instead for housing. It then rejected advice it received from a non-statutory enquiry, and sought a declaration from the court as to … Continue reading Oxfordshire County Council v Oxford City Council and others: HL 24 May 2006
Where land had been registered by the Commons Commissioner as common land by virtue of a mistake, the Act provided no mechanism for the correction of that mistake. In this case it was not established that the land comprised fields which were not as such derelict, and had been part of a garden. The registration … Continue reading Re Land at Freshfields: ChD 27 Jan 1993
The court refused to set aside the council’s decision to register as a common a lesser area then applied for. ‘ Does the council have power to register a smaller area than applied for? It is perfectly true that there is no express power in either the Act or the Regulations to register a smaller … Continue reading Regina (Alfred McAlpine Homes Ltd) v Staffordshire County Council: 17 Jan 2002
An application was made under section 14 of the 1965 Act. Held: The Town or Village Green registration was not justified. There was no evidence that rectification would be in any way unjust to the residents of Castleton, but a refusal to rectify would force economic loss on the landowners (who would otherwise be able … Continue reading Humphries v Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council: 18 Jun 2004
The Parish Council appealed against refusal of leave to seek judicial review of a decision to reject an application for certain land to be registered as a common. Judges: Carnwath LJ Citations: [1997] EWCA Civ 2807, [2006] Ch 43 Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 13(b) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Citing: Appeal from – Regina v … Continue reading Regina v Oxfordshire County Council ex parte Sunningwell Parish Council: CA 24 Nov 1997
LRA Profit a prendre; right to exercise common of pasture; doctrine of Lost Modern Grant; Prescription Act 1832; Land Registration Act 2002, ss. 33, 34, 40, 65, sch 4, para. 5(b) or (c); Commons Registration Act 1965, ss 1, 13(b); Commons Act 2006; New Forest Claims Act 1854; New Forest Act 1877; Commons Registration (New … Continue reading Anthony Robert Cooper v Alan Charles Prince, Terence John Madden, Paul Nicholas Bakewell (Easements and Profits A Prendre): LRA 31 Aug 2011
A failure to register town green did not defeat existing customary rights over it. Citations: Times 11-Nov-1996 Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 1(2)(a) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Land Updated: 03 November 2022; Ref: scu.88129
Customary rights over land were not defeated by failure to register as common. ‘As of right’ meant that the right must be exercised in the belief that it is a right enjoyed by the inhabitants of the village to the exclusion of all other people. ‘it is no trivial matter for a landowner to have … Continue reading Regina v Suffolk County Council Ex Parte Steed and Another: CA 2 Aug 1996
Judges: Lady Justice Andrews Citations: [2021] EWCA Civ 398 Links: Bailii Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Planning, Land Updated: 06 October 2022; Ref: scu.659852
Appeal was made against an order that the register of town and village greens be amended by the deletion of an entry. Judges: Carnwath, Sullivan, Patten LJJ Citations: [2012] EWCA Civ 262, [2012] 11 EG 92, [2012] 2 P and CR 1, [2012] BLGR 617 Links: Bailii Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 1(2)(a), Commons Registration … Continue reading Adamson v Paddico (267) Ltd: CA 7 Mar 2012
The respondent owned farmland over which public rights of way were claimed. Judges: Carnwath, Sullivan, Patten LJJ Citations: [2012] 2 PandCR 3, [2012] EWCA Civ 250 Links: Bailii Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 2, Commons Registration (New Land) Regulations 1969, ountryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 22(1) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Citing: Appeal from … Continue reading Taylor v Betterment Properties (Weymouth) Ltd and Another: CA 7 Mar 2012
Application had been made to the defendant to register as a common land belonging in part to the claimant and in part to the defendant. The claimant objected to the registration. The defendant did not. Judges: Behrens J Citations: [2010] EWHC 810 (Ch), [2010] NPC 47 Links: Bailii Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 13(b), Countryside … Continue reading Leeds Group Plc v Leeds City Council: ChD 21 Apr 2010
The claimant appealed against refusal of its challenge to an order declaring part its land to be a town or village green. Held: The term ‘neighbourhood within any locality’ in section 22(1A) can mean a singular neighbourhood or more than one neighbourhood.Sullivan LJ, dissenting mentioned the absurdity of the situation in a case such as … Continue reading Leeds Group Plc v Leeds City Council: CA 20 Dec 2010
Rights of commons were registered whether the registration was provisional or final. A provisional but rejected registration stops time running under the doctrine of lost modern grant. Citations: Ind Summary 13-Jun-1994, Times 26-May-1994 Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 1(2)(b) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Land Updated: 24 August 2022; Ref: scu.80191
A large area of land had been registered as a town or village green. The company, owner of the land, had succeeded in having the registration removed. The Council appealed, question whether the procedure undertaken by the High Court on such an application was appellate or by way of a rehearing. Also the definition of … Continue reading Betterment Properties (Weymouth) Ltd v Dorset County Council: CA 6 Feb 2008
The claimant sought a declaration that a plot of land owned by him was not registerable as a new green. Citations: [2007] EWHC 1065 (Ch) Links: Bailii Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 13 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Land Updated: 11 July 2022; Ref: scu.252410
The company sought an order removing some 46 acres of land from designation as a village green. The claimant sought the amendment of the register. The parties disputed what evidence beyond that available to the committee making the decision should be admissible. Held: The jurisdiction of the court was not an appellate one, and therefore … Continue reading Betterment Properties (Weymouth) Ltd v Dorset County Council: ChD 2 Mar 2007
Application was made to register the ‘trap grounds’ as a village green. Held: Carnwath LJ: ‘The 1965 Act created no new legal status, and no new rights or liabilities other than those resulting from the proper interpretation of section 10. Since that section only takes effect in relation to any particular land on registration, there … Continue reading Oxfordshire County Council v Oxford City Council and Another: CA 24 Feb 2004
Land had been acquired by the trustees’ predecessors under the 1882 Act. The question was now whether it was subject to charitable trusts. Money having been received from the acquisition of the rights, a meeting had been held to determine the trusts upon which it was to be held. The express trusts were for the … Continue reading H M Attorney General v Hyde and others: ChD 5 Dec 2001
LRA Conveyance of sporting and manorial rights – whether it includes the freehold of the waste – claimed adverse possession of a common – effect of registration as owner of common land under Commons Registration Act 1965 Citations: [2010] EWLandRA 2008 – 1498 Links: Bailii Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Registered … Continue reading Mellestrom v Badgworthy Land Company (Adverse Possession): LRA 21 Jul 2010
A claim was made for the review of a decision of the Council to amend the Register of Town and Village Greens (TVG). Held: The registration of the TVG was manifestly flawed and could not stand whether under section 14 or by way of judicial review. Available procedures did not enable precisely the same relief … Continue reading Cheltenham Builders Ltd , Regina (on the Application of) v South Gloucestershire District Council: Admn 10 Nov 2003
Sullivan J allowed Laing Homes Ltd.’s application for judicial review of the County Council’s decision to register a Town or Village Green, but rejected the argument that the locality needed to be specified in the application form, could not be later amended, and that the Ecclesiastical Parish of Hazlemere did not qualify as a locality. … Continue reading Laing Homes Ltd, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs: Admn 8 Jul 2003
A law permitted local authorities to oblige landowners to transfer hunting rights over private land to approved hunting associations. The landowners could not prevent hunting on their property. Landowners so affected were made members automatically of the hunting association so that they could now hunt over other land also subject to the same new access … Continue reading Chassagnou and Others v France: ECHR 29 Apr 1999
Local inhabitants requested the alteration of the Town and Village Green register to include land over which they claimed use as of right for more than twenty years. The difference between acquiescence, which would allow the claim, and tolerance or permission which would defeat it is the presence of some positive act of consent. As … Continue reading Regina (on the application of Beresford) v The City of Sunderland: CA 26 Jul 2001
The defendant solicitors acted for the plaintiff in the purchase of land, but failed to undertake a commons search which would have revealed an entry which would prevent the client pursuing his development. The defect was discovered only when purchasers from their clients later undertook a commons search. In fact the registration was erroneous, but … Continue reading G and K Ladenbau (UK) Ltd v Crawley and De Reya: QBD 25 Apr 1977
The period of twenty years required to establish a common under the Act was the period up to the date of the application. Judges: Dyson J Citations: [1996] EWHC Admin 385, (1996) 74 PandCR 1 Links: Bailii Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 Citing: Cited – New Windsor Corporation v Mellor CA 1975 The respondent had … Continue reading Regina v Norfolk County Council ex parte Perry: Admn 19 Dec 1996
A right to pasture animals on a common had been levant and couchant, and as such was inalienable as a separate asset from the land where the animals were kept. The right was registered under the Act, and was thereby transformed into a right to graze a certain number of animals on the common. That … Continue reading Bettison and others v Langton and others: HL 17 May 2001
The developer originally sought permission for 450 homes. That was refused. Before the appeal, it proposed an alternative with 250 homes to be adopted only if the size of the development were considered to be the critical factor. The inspector decided for the smaller scale application. The developer appealed, but the Secretary of State dismissed … Continue reading Bernard Wheatcroft Ltd v Secretary of State for the Environment: CA 1982
The court considered that the time period of twenty years necessary to establish a right of common under the Act was the period ending with the date of the application. Held: The court rectified the register under section 14 so as to remove the registration of an area of land between a row of houses … Continue reading Ministry of Defence v Wiltshire County Council: 3 May 1995
The owner of a farm applied late for the registration of a right of common over the Dee Marsh Saltings which had been provisionally registered as common land. After an inquiry the Commons Commissioner, Hugh Francis QC, confirmed the registration of the land as common land. He took the view, after hearing the evidence as … Continue reading Central Electricity Generating Board v Clwyd County Council: 1976
The applicants were Belgian nationals and medical practitioners. Dr Le Compte was suspended from practising medicine for two years for an offence against professional discipline. He appealed to the Appeals Council, alleging violations of Article 6. In his absence the Appeals Council rejected his case and substituted for the two year suspension a direction to … Continue reading Albert And Le Compte v Belgium (Article 50): ECHR 24 Oct 1983
Two appeals as to the circumstances in which the concept of ‘statutory incompatibility’ will defeat an application to register land as a town or village green where the land is held by a public authority for statutory purposes. In the first case, five plots in Lancaster were owned by LCC who objected to an application … Continue reading Lancashire County Council, Regina (on The Application of) v SSEFRA and Another: SC 11 Dec 2019
The Court was asked whether part of the working port of Mistley has been properly registered as a town or village green. Held: The 19th century statutes, as applied to a registered modern green, are not to be construed as interfering with the rights of the landowner to continue pre-existing uses so far as not … Continue reading TW Logistics Ltd v Essex County Council and Another: CA 5 Oct 2018
The court was asked as to the power to amend an application for registration of land as a village green, in the absence of any specific provision in the regulations permitting amendment. Guidance was sought for practitioners. Held: The 1965 Act ‘created no new legal status, and no new rights or liabilities other than those … Continue reading Oxfordshire County Council v Oxford City Council and Another: CA 24 Feb 2005
The respondent had obtained registration of land, Bachelors’ Acre, a grassed area of land in New Windsor, now used as a car park in the register of town and village greens under the Act as a customary green. It had been used for archery in mediaeval times and had later been leased for grazing subject … Continue reading New Windsor Corporation v Mellor: CA 1975
When setting out to establish that a piece of land has become a village green with rights of common, the tests are similar to those used in the law of prescription and adverse possession. Accordingly, there is no need to establish a belief in those using the rights asserted beyond that the use is as … Continue reading Regina v Oxfordshire County Council and Another, Ex Parte Sunningwell Parish Council: HL 25 Jun 1999
Though an enquiry as to whether land is a green can only be initiated by an application for the addition of the claimed green to the register by some individual, the enquiry should not be seen as civil litigation between the applicant and any objectors: the public also clearly has an interest in the outcome. … Continue reading In re West Anstey Common: 1985
The Parish Council sought judicial review of the county council’s decision to reject a regristation of land as a Common on the ground that the user of the land by the villagers had not been shown to be ‘as of right.’ Held: Leave to bring the review was refused, applying the Steed case. Judges: Buxton … Continue reading Regina v Oxfordshire County Council ex parte Sunningwell Parish Council: Admn 11 Jul 1996
Judicial review was sought of the Council’s decision to refuse to register a park as a Town or Village Green. Held: Carnwath J looked at the procedure to be followed by a council receiving an application for registration of commons right: ‘it is accepted that if the matter has to be reconsidered by the Council … Continue reading Regina v Suffolk County Council Ex Parte Steed and Steed: Admn 1995
Acts of grazing and fertilising by the owner which would have contravened the 1857 and 1876 Acts if the land had been a village green at the time, prevented the land from satisfying the section 22 definition. Judges: Judge Howarth Citations: Unreported, 18 June 2004 Statutes: Commons Registration Act 1965 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Cited … Continue reading Humphreys v Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council: Admn 18 Jun 2004
The only effect of non-registration of rights of common was to deprive the inhabitants of the benefit of the conclusive presumption furnished by section 10 of the Act and to require them to prove the existence of the rights in question. The land was not deemed to be a village green but did not exclude … Continue reading In re Turnworth Down Dorset: 1978
The chief land registrar should not decide the construction of an instrument, under the power conferred on him by rule 298(1) of the Land Registration Rules, where there was a dispute of the fact as to the surrounding circumstances, but he should refer the matter to the court in pursuance of the power conferred on … Continue reading Re Dance’s Way: CA 1962
Houses were built next to a common. Over many years the owners had driven over the common. The landowners appealed a decision that they could not acquire a right of way by prescription over the common because such use had been unlawful as a criminal offence under section 193 of the Law of Property Act … Continue reading Bakewell Management Limited v Brandwood and others: HL 1 Apr 2004
The court was asked whether an area of land forming part of the Port of Mistley in Essex should remain registered as a town or village green pursuant to the Commons Act 2006, or whether the TVG register should be rectified by the de-registration in whole or in part of the Land by the exercise … Continue reading TW Logistics Ltd v Essex County Council and Another: ChD 8 Feb 2017
Power to call in is administrative in nature The powers of the Secretary of State to call in a planning application for his decision, and certain other planning powers, were essentially an administrative power, and not a judicial one, and therefore it was not a breach of the applicants’ rights to a fair hearing before … Continue reading Regina (Holding and Barnes plc) v Secretary of State for Environment Transport and the Regions; Regina (Alconbury Developments Ltd and Others) v Same and Others: HL 9 May 2001
Land had been registered as a town or village green but wrongly so. The claimant had sought rectification, but the respondents argued that the long time elapsed after registration should defeat the request. Held: The appeal were solely as to the way the lapse of time may be relevant to whether or not it wa … Continue reading Adamson and Others v Paddico (267) Ltd: SC 5 Feb 2014
The court considered whether the lease of part of Doncaster Common (not registered as such) fell within section 123(2A) of the 1972 Act. Held: For over a century the public had, as of right, used Doncaster Common for what could be conveniently termed recreation. Even if the public’s use depended upon a bare licence, the … Continue reading Regina v Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council ex parte Braim: 1986
The company sought the rectification of the register of village greens to remove an entry relating to its land, saying that the Council had not properly considered the need properly to identify the locality which was said to have enjoyed the rights claimed. Held: Rectification was ordered. The Green ought not to have been registered … Continue reading Paddico (267) Ltd v Kirklees Metropolitan Council and Others: ChD 23 Jun 2011
The 1965 Act ‘was passed to give effect to the recommendations of the Royal Commission so far as registration was concerned. The Act of 1965 did not confer any general public right of access over common land and did not set up the machinery for the . .
References: [1995] 4 All ER 931 Coram: Harman J The court considered that the time period of twenty years necessary to establish a right of common under the Act was the period ending with the date of the application. Held: The court rectified the register under section 14 so as to remove the registration of … Continue reading Ministry of Defence v Wiltshire County Council; 3 May 1995
