UK: Commons Act 2006

This Friday, 6 April, sees the introduction of a new system for registering town or village greens. This form of registration has been around since 1966 and the changes that will be brought in could leave developers of land with a problem.

Although the legal definition of the town or village green is changed, the basic requirements remain. An application can be made for registration of land as a green if it has been used by local people for recreational purposes, referred to as lawful sports and pastimes, as of right for at least 20 years. There are three different types of application:

• Where the use of the land as a green continues up to the time of the application to register;

• Where the use has ceased before the application is made but after the date that the new legislation comes into force, i.e. 6 April 2007. Here, an application to register must be made within 2 years of the use ceasing;

• Where the use ceases before the application is made, but before 6 April 2007, the person seeking registration has a period of five years in which to apply.

It is this last registration that is causing concern as it leaves the landowner/developer uncertain as to whether an application will be made, in effect stagnating the use of the land. Landowners may be surprised to learn that a site they purchased four years ago is unexpectedly the subject of an application for registration. Of small assistance may be the saving provision protecting development begun before June 23 2006.

The new provisions will therefore apply to land that may have been used for lawful sports and pastimes some years ago and when purchasing open land for development it will be necessary to make all appropriate enquiries to see if there is a chance of any application being made to register the land as a town or village green.

It is wise for owners of open land to erect appropriate signage prohibiting or, less confrontationally, giving licence to the land being used for recreational activities. This will prevent rights accruing if 20 years use has not yet been established. It will not, however, help landowners where 20 years’ use has already been clocked up.

If you do find that an intended development site is blighted by a registration, the only way to avoid the effects will be to offer alternative land of equal size as a replacement to the local populace.

If you build on land that is later subject to a registration, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is advising that the landowner runs the risk that any building work undertaken may then have to be removed from the land if a successful registration is made within the time limits.

Law: Commons Act 2006

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

The original publication date for this article was 05/04/2007.