Snelling and Another v Burstow Parish Council: ChD 24 Jan 2013

The parties disputed the application and interpretation of ancient statues relating to allotments. The land had been appropriated to allotments under the 1945 Act. The Council had argued that it had a power of sale under the 1908 Act subject to consent under the 1925 Act.
Held: The Council was correct in seeking the consent of the Secretary of State under section 8 of the 1925 Act, because the power of sale it sought to exercise to dispose of the Allotments was the power conferred by section 32 of the SHandA Act 1908 and not the power under section 27 of the Commons Act 1876.
Section 27 may not be entirely redundant- the Council did not rule out that there may be other kinds of allotments which were not, for whatever reason, swept up by section 33(4) of the SHandA Act 1908 and where section 27 still has some residual effect. But as regards the Hunter’s Moon Allotments, those did fall within section 33(4) of the SHandA Act 1908 and so were covered exclusively by the power of sale under section 32 of that Act, subject to the obtaining of the consent of the Secretary of State under section 8 of the Allotments Act 1925.

Vivien Rose
[2013] EWHC 46 (Ch)
Bailii
Inclosure and Improvement of Commons Act 1845 31, Commons Act 1876 27, Local Government Act 1894 5(2) 6, Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 32, Allotments Act 1925 8, Local Government Act 1972 126
England and Wales
Citing:
CitedO’Byrne v Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and Regions and Another CA 17-Apr-2001
A tenant sought to buy a flat under the right to buy scheme but the flat was in the green belt. The land was held under provisions in the 1938 Act making the sale of any part conditional on the consent of the respondent. The local authority . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Local Government

Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.470559