The taxpayer operated a substantial loyalty reward scheme (Nectar) for assorted companies. The Revenue appealed against an order allowing the company to reclaim input VAT. The court was asked now: ‘what is the proper characteristic, for VAT purposes, of the payment made by LMUK to those other suppliers; is it a payment for a redemption … Continue reading Revenue and Customs v Loyalty Management UK Ltd: ChD 22 Jun 2006
The court considered whether there had been an act by the landowner sufficient to amount to a dedication a path as a public right of way. Scott LJ said that actual dedication was ‘often a pure legal fiction [which] put on the affirmant of the public right an artificial onus which was often fatal to … Continue reading Jones v Bates: CA 1938
The company sought judicial review of the decision of the respondent to apply its cumulative impact policy to their application for extended licensing hours. Held: The company’s application amounted to a material variation of the license, and the council was not precluded from applying its policy. Judges: Beatson J Citations: [2006] EWHC 815 (Admin), Times … Continue reading JD Wetherspoon Plc, Regina (on the Application Of) v Guildford Borough Council: Admn 11 Apr 2006
The plaintiff had a hotel. The rest of the island had been acquired by the defendant which was demolishing and rebuilding the other properties. The plaintiff complained, and the judge found, that by reason of the operations, which involved noise and dust, there was a substantial interference with the comfort of the plaintiff in the … Continue reading Andreae v Selfridge and Co Ltd: CA 1938
In each case the local authority sought to recover possession of its own land. In the Lambeth case, they asserted this right as against an overstaying former tenant, and in the Leeds case as against gypsies. In each case the occupiers said that the recovery of possession interfered with their right respect for their family … Continue reading Kay and Another v London Borough of Lambeth and others; Leeds City Council v Price and others and others: HL 8 Mar 2006
The claimants sought to register a right of way over the common by virtue of use over forty years. The defendants denied that they were able to grant an easement inder the 1871 Act, and that therefore no claim could be laid under prescription. Held: Though the 1871 Act contained a wide provision against alienation, … Continue reading Housden and Another v The Conservators of Wimbledon and Putney Commons: CA 18 Mar 2008
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Judges: Sir Ross Cranston Citations: [2022] EWHC 3044 (Admin) Links: Bailii Statutes: Commons Act 2006 38 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Planning Updated: 21 January 2023; Ref: scu.683565
The port challenged the proposed registration of part of the beach at Newhaven as a village green, saying that the result would be inconsistent with their performance of their statutory duties. Judges: Richards, McFarlane, Lewison LJJ Citations: [2013] EWCA Civ 276, [2013] 3 All ER 677, [2014] QB 186, [2013] 15 EG 105, [2013] 3 … Continue reading Newhaven Port and Properties Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v East Sussex County Council and Another: CA 27 Mar 2013
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
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
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
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
Ouseley J he said that he would have arrived at a different conclusion from the Inspector as to the purpose for which the Authority had acquired the land at issue; but considered that that did not entitle him to interfere with the inspector’s evaluation of the evidence: ‘I can see no real reason not to … Continue reading Lancashire County Council v The Secretary of State for The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Another: Admn 27 May 2016
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
The fact that land had been requisitioned by the Ministry of Agriculture between 1941 and 1960 and the 20-odd years’ user relied on as having created the rights had preceded 1941 was a bar to a prescriptive claim to grazing rights under the Prescription Act 1832 but not at common law. Discussing Angus v Dalton, … Continue reading Tehidy Minerals Ltd v Norman: CA 1971
The court was asked: ‘whether East Sussex County Council . . was wrong in law to decide to register an area . . known as West Beach at Newhaven . . as a village green pursuant to the provisions of the Commons Act 2006. The points of principle raised by the appeal are, potentially at … Continue reading Newhaven Port and Properties Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v East Sussex County Council and Another: SC 25 Feb 2015
The claimant sought registration of an open area as a Commons under the 2006 Act. Until 2002 it had been tenanted by a golf club. The inspector had recommended against registration, saying that the use by the public for lawful pastimes had been for more than twenty years, but that this use had been generally … Continue reading Lewis, Regina (on the Application of) v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council: Admn 20 Dec 2007
EAT Transfer of Undertakings: Service Provision Change The Appellant ran a ‘park-and-ride’ service under a contract with the local council by virtue of which it received a substantial subsidy. The Second Respondent, having grown impatient with a tendering process, decided to run a commercial service on the same route, using its own staff and buses, … Continue reading C T Plus (Yorkshire) CIC v Black and Others: EAT 3 Aug 2016
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
Offence must be ;in accordance with law’ The court considered the meaning of the need for an offence to be ‘in accordance with law.’ The applicants did not argue that the expression prescribed by law required legislation in every case, but contended that legislation was required only where the common law rules were so uncertain … Continue reading The Sunday Times (No 1) v The United Kingdom: ECHR 26 Apr 1979
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 plaintiff sought damages for false imprisonment. The Secretary of State had refused to disclose certain documents. The question was as to the need for the defendant to justify the use of his powers by disclosing the documents. Held: The legislation must be interpreted to give effect to Parliament’s intention, even if that meant adding … Continue reading Liversidge v Sir John Anderson: HL 3 Nov 1941
