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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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 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
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