TOWN GREEN APPLICATION
The Council is the registration authority for the purposes of Town and Village Green
applications. An application dated 4 August 2005 has been made to it for the registration of
certain land lying between All Saints Road and Warren Drive as a Town Green. The land
which is subject to the application is shaded on the plan attached to this report.
Some of the land which is subject to the application is owned by the Council. The extent of the
Council’s land is also delineated on the plan, being the lighter shaded area. The remainder of
the land which is subject to the application (the darker shaded area) is largely owned by
Nordicline Limited but a small section belongs to another private owner.
Since the Council is both the Registration Authority and landowner in respect of part of the
land, it is not able, (for reasons arising from Human Rights legislation) to deal with this
application. It is arranging, therefore, that Lancashire County Council will deal with the
application on the Council’s behalf. It is expected that a hearing into the application will be
held chaired by a barrister who will recommend whether or not the application should
succeed.
This report deals with the Council’s position in relation to this application in its capacity as
landowner only.
In relation to the Council land within the application site (which is all the land that this report
seeks to deal with) it is clear that:
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Part of the land is sub-let to a rugby club
Part of the land is let as a golf driving range
Part of the land is a community centre
Part of the land has been fenced and used as a secure grazing site
Part of the land is adopted highway
Rights of way exist over part of the land.
The test for the designation of land as a Town Green is that it has been in use for a twenty
year period, up to the date of the application, as of right, by local inhabitants for recreational
purposes.
The position would therefore appear to be that the historical and current use of the land is not
consistent with any status as a Town Green. Accordingly the test is not satisfied and the
Council should not accede to the application in its capacity as landowner.
A consequence of registration, furthermore, would be that the Council would not be able to
use its land as it has done to date. Its use of land in future given the rights which would exist
over a Town Green, would be constrained and therefore conceivably some current uses could
not continue.
The Council has a fiduciary duty to Council Tax payers not to do anything which would have
the effect of devaluing its land or disposing or dealing with it in any way at less than full value.
Council officers advise that should the Town Green application not be contested by the
Council, and should it consequently be successful, the land would notionally devalue by some
£1.5 million.
The Executive resolved at its meeting on 8 February 2006 that a holding objection to that
application should be lodged in order to preserve the Council’s position, pending guidance on
the legislation being received from the House of Lords in a case involving Oxfordshire County
Council. The decision for Members now is whether to maintain that objection at the hearing
arranged by Lancashire County Council.
Taking all the matters outlined above into consideration and on the basis of advice from
Counsel, following the conclusion of the Oxfordshire litigation, Members are advised that the
Council should maintain its objection.
It is therefore recommended:That the Council as landowner in relation to land subject to the application dated 4 August
2005 for registration as a Town Green instruct officers to continue to pursue the formal
objection to the registration of the claimed land.