The company objected to the proposed registration by the defendant Council of a strip of beach land as a common. They said that it was not a ‘town or village green’ within the 2006 Act.
Held: The court rejected all grounds of objection, save that registration was incompatible with NPP’s statutory powers and duties.
One issue was whether rights of ‘a significant number of inhabitants of any locality . . [to indulge in] lawful sports and pastimes on the land for a period of at least 20 years’ could exist in respect of land to which the public had no right of access. Ouseley J considered that the absence of any right of access was not determinative of the issue as to whether there was a right to perform sports and pastimes: it would be merely evidence that there was no such right.
Judges:
Ouseley J
Citations:
[2012] EWHC 647 (Admin), [2012] 3 WLR 709, [2012] WLR(D) 94, [2012] ACD 85, [2012] 14 EG 63, [2012] 3 All ER 1361
Links:
Statutes:
Commons Act 2006, The Newhaven Harbour and Ouse Lower Navigation Act 1847, Newhaven Harbour Improvement Act 1878
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Oxfordshire County Council v Oxford City Council and others HL 24-May-2006
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 . .
Cited by:
Appeal from – Newhaven Port and Properties Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v East Sussex County Council and Another CA 27-Mar-2013
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. . .
Appeal from – Newhaven Port and Properties Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for The Environment Food and Rural Affairs CA 14-Jun-2013
. .
At first instance – Newhaven Port and Properties Ltd, Regina (on The Application of) v East Sussex County Council and Another SC 25-Feb-2015
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 . .
Cited – Kotegaonkar v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Another Admn 19-Jul-2012
The court was asked: ‘can a way which is not connected to another public highway, or to some other point to which the public have a right of access, itself be a public highway?’ A path had been registered over part of te claimant’s land, but with no . .
Cited – Lancashire County Council, Regina (on The Application of) v SSEFRA and Another SC 11-Dec-2019
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, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.466299