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 on the evidence available at the time, but might have been registered later. However had the first registration failed, the then owners might properly have taken steps to prevent a registration. They had indeed shown continued non-acqiescence. Though earlier authorities may have differed the words of the later statute could not naturally be read to require a restriction of the class of users to a single locality. However a locality is to be understood as an administrative area with legal boundaries, and enjoyment must be by members of a single locality. Under section 22(1A) a neighbourhood is a cohesive area, b ut may be within two localities. ‘On the materials available to the Committee in 1997, it was not justified in making the registration for one simple reason, namely the proper legal meaning of the words ‘any locality’ in the class c definition in section 22(1). Despite the views that I expressed earlier as to the meaning of the term ‘locality’ viewed in 1997, it has, I think, now been accepted at too high a level for me to gainsay that the term ‘any locality’ is singular in the class c definition: ‘on which the inhabitants of any locality have indulged in such sports and pastimes as of right for not less than twenty years’.
Vos J
[2011] EWHC 1606 (Ch), [2011] 26 EG 84, [2011] BLGR 727, [2011] NPC 66
Bailii
Commons Registration Act 1965 1 13 14, Commons Registration (New Land) Regulations 1969 (SI 1969 No 1843) 3 4, Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 98, Commons Act 2006, Commons (Registration of Town or Village Greens) (Interim Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2007, Interpretation Act 1978 6(c)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Fitch v Rawling 1795
A common was claimed at Steeple Bumpstead in Essex for ‘all kinds of lawful games, sports and pastimes . . at all seasonable times of the year.’ including cricket.
Held: Rights of common over land can include the right of local inhabitants to . .
Cited – Hammerton v Honey CA 1876
A claim was made for a local custom of common rights over Stockwell Green.
Held: The claim failed. The evidence did not show that use of the green was confined to inhabitants of Stockwell. Sir George Jessel MR said: ‘A custom is local Common . .
Cited – Cox v Schoolbred CA 15-Nov-1878
Jessel MR rejected a claim to establish a local custom saying that the only two witnesses called for the plaintiff admitted that ‘people from the neighbouring places [apart from Pangbourne] had also been in the habit of playing upon and using . .
Cited – Bourke v Davis 1890
Kay J considered that a customary right over land might be confined to the inhabitants of a district. . .
Cited – Edwards v Jenkins 1896
Application was made to register a customary right over land.
Held: The ‘locality rule’ applied. The inhabitants of the contiguous Surrey parishes of Beddington, Carshalton and Mitcham could not have a customary right of recreation over land . .
Cited – Ministry of Defence v Wiltshire County Council 3-May-1995
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 . .
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 – Regina v Oxfordshire County Council and Another, Ex Parte Sunningwell Parish Council HL 25-Jun-1999
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 . .
Cited – New Windsor Corporation v Mellor CA 1975
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 . .
Cited – Ministry of Defence v Wiltshire County Council 3-May-1995
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 . .
Cited – Regina v Suffolk County Council Ex Parte Steed and Steed Admn 1995
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 . .
Cited – Laing Homes Ltd, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Admn 8-Jul-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 . .
Cited – Cheltenham Builders Ltd , Regina (on the Application of) v South Gloucestershire District Council Admn 10-Nov-2003
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 . .
Cited – Regina v City of Sunderland ex parte Beresford HL 13-Nov-2003
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: . .
Cited – Humphries v Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council 18-Jun-2004
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 . .
Cited – Betterment Properties (Weymouth) Ltd v Dorset County Council ChD 2-Mar-2007
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 . .
Cited – Betterment Properties (Weymouth) Ltd v Dorset County Council CA 6-Feb-2008
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 . .
Cited – Betterment Properties (Weymouth) Ltd v Dorset County Council and Another ChD 23-Nov-2010
A claim was made for the rectification of the register of Town or Village Greens to remove the registration for their land.
Held: The register should be rectified. The user relied on had been neither peaceable nor ‘as of right’ as required. As . .
Cited – Lewis, Regina (on The Application of) v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and Another SC 3-Mar-2010
The claimants sought to have land belonging to the council registered as a village green to prevent it being developed. They said that it had for more than twenty years been used by the community for various sports. The council replied that it had . .
Cited – Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Nhs Foundation Trust and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Deluce and Others Admn 23-Mar-2010
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 . .
Cited – Betterment Properties (Weymouth) Ltd v Dorset County Council and Another ChD 23-Nov-2010
A claim was made for the rectification of the register of Town or Village Greens to remove the registration for their land.
Held: The register should be rectified. The user relied on had been neither peaceable nor ‘as of right’ as required. As . .
Cited – Leeds Group Plc v Leeds City Council CA 20-Dec-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 . .
Cited by:
Appeal from – Adamson v Paddico (267) Ltd CA 7-Mar-2012
Appeal was made against an order that the register of town and village greens be amended by the deletion of an entry. . .
At First Instance – Adamson and Others v Paddico (267) Ltd SC 5-Feb-2014
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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Planning, Land
Leading Case
Updated: 09 November 2021; Ref: scu.441209