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. He endorsed the Inspector’s approach at paragraph 142 to the effect that ‘it is clear from the scheme of the [1965 Act] and the Regulations that the question of what is the relevant ‘locality’ (or if appropriate ‘neighbourhood within a locality’) in the section 22 sense is a matter of fact for the Registration Authority to determine (albeit in accordance with the correct legal principles) in the light of all the evidence, which may indeed contain a number of conflicting views on the topic. There is no requirement in the Form or Regulations for an applicant to commit himself to a legally correct (or any) definition of the ‘Section 22 locality’ (or ‘neighbourhood’)’.
Judges:
Sullivan J
Citations:
[2003] EWHC 1578 (Admin), [2003] 3 PLR 60
Links:
Statutes:
Cited by:
Cited – Paddico (267) Ltd v Kirklees Metropolitan Council and Others ChD 23-Jun-2011
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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land, Local Government
Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.184462
