Wiltshire Council v Cooper Estates Strategic Land Ltd: CA 16 May 2019

The issue on this appeal is what it takes in a development plan document to identify land for potential development. If land is so identified, the right to apply for registration of a town or village green is suspended.
Lewison LJ said of these amendments: ‘Ever since the Trap Grounds case . . the courts have adopted a definition of a TVG [town or village green] which goes far beyond what the mind’s eye would think of as a traditional village green. The consequence of this interpretation of the definition is that there have been registered as TVGs: rocks, car parks, golf courses, school playgrounds, a quarry, scrubland, and part of a working port. If land is registered as a TVG the effect of the registration is, for practical purposes, to sterilise land for development. This became a concern for the Government, because the criteria for registration did not take into account any planning considerations; and because it was thought in some quarters that applications for registration of TVGs were being used as a means of stopping development outside the planning system.’

Citations:

[2019] EWCA Civ 840

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedLancashire 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.

Planning, Land

Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.637524