Victoria Charlesson and kayleigh Chapman, in our leading Planning & Environmental law team, discusses applications to register land as a town or village green.
Regulation 5(4) of the Commons (Registration of Town or Village Greens) (Interim Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2007 provides that where an application to register land as a town or village green appears not to be “duly made” the relevant authority must not reject that application “where it appears…that any action by the applicant might put the application in order” and must give the applicant “reasonable opportunity” to take that action.
In R (on the Application of the Master Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge) v Cambridgeshire County Council, the landowner St John’s College Cambridge sought to challenge two decisions by Cambridgeshire County Council in respect of an application to register its land as a town or village green.
The key question however rested on whether Regulation 5(4) permitted just one opportunity to rectify a defective application or whether it permitted more than one such opportunity to correct an application. St John’s College argued for the former.
Sir Ross Cranston held that St John’s College’s interpretation of Regulation 5(4) did not “accord with the underlying legal policy, [was] contrary to its language, and [was] unrealistic as a matter of practice”. Further, that interpretation would have an “undesirable consequence” and there was nothing in the language of Regulation 5(4) which suggested that only one opportunity to correct an application would be given.
Sir Ross Cranston’s judgment refers particularly to applications by lay people and it would indeed appear to be harsh on an applicant with no knowledge of the legislative framework such applications are made on to not be permitted to remedy an application on more than one occasion if necessary.
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