Supreme court ruling will make it harder to protect public land from developers

[mark at tlio.org.uk]

  'We’re losing one of our last open spaces,’ say village green activists


    Supreme court ruling will make it harder to protect public land from
    developers

by Jamie Doward, The Observer

Sunday 15th December 2019

Ref: https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-observer/20191215/282063393856532


It is not the most attractive piece of land in Lancashire. But for 
Janine Bebbington and her friends, Moorside Fields was where all the 
important things in life happened.

“It was our playground, it was where we climbed trees, used the running 
track from the nearby school, played rounders, kissed people in the 
bushes, drank cider, did all the things that people get up to in green 
spaces.”

Sitting in the middle of three estates in south Lancaster, the five 
fields have been enjoyed by locals for more than half a century. But 
plans to ensure that future generations will find delights there have 
been scuppered by the supreme court.

On Wednesday, the court stripped Moorside Fields of its village green 
status, a ruling that campaigners predict will have major implications 
for the protection of open spaces across England and Wales.

Under the Commons Act 2006, land that has been used for informal 
recreation for at least 20 years by local people without challenge or 
permission can be registered as a village green. Once registered it is 
protected from development.

Fears that the land might be built upon saw the Moorside Fields 
Community Group attempt to register the fields as a village green in 
2008. The group won its case in the high court and the court of appeal. 
But the supreme court judgment, by a majority of three to two, has 
reversed the earlier decisions.

“This is a deeply worrying decision as it puts at risk countless 
publicly owned green spaces which local people have long enjoyed, but 
which, unknown to them, are held for purposes which are incompatible 
with recreational use,” said Nicola Hodgson, case officer for the Open 
Spaces Society, which campaigns for the protection of town and village 
greens. “We urgently need a change in the law to ensure our precious 
green spaces are protected.”

The county council, which owns the land, had objected on the grounds 
that the fields might be needed for the expansion of the local school. 
Some parents feared such a move would open up the school playing fields 
to the wider public, something that constituted a threat to pupil 
safety. Handing down its judgment in favour of the council, the court 
also quashed a separate attempt to grant three hectares of a wood in 
Surrey, owned by the NHS, village green status.

“I think that this judgment totally redefines the way we understand land 
held in the public domain,” Bebbington said. “It affects every piece of 
land held by a statutory body, for example by the MoD, the NHS and local 
authorities.”

She added: “I fear that Moorside Fields will now be developed or sold to 
fund new schools elsewhere. We are sad for the people of south Lancaster 
who in time will lose one of the last bits of open space available to 
them; and we are sad that England will be less green and pleasant as a 
result of this judgment.”

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: “Our primary concern has 
always been to ensure that Moorside Primary School provides a secure 
environment where pupils can get the best education. We are pleased that 
the court has recognised there is a need to protect this land for future 
generations.”

The ruling is a major setback for open space campaigners who have 
enjoyed mixed fortunes down the years. A House of Lords decision in 
1999, approving the right of the village of Sunningwell in Oxfordshire 
to register a strip of land as a village green, saw similar applications 
mushroom across the country.

But the introduction of the Growth and Infrastructure Act in 2013 
stipulated that land which had been subject to planning applications 
could not be granted village green status, staunching the flow of 
further registrations.

“This ruling reflects what’s going on at a broader level in our 
society,” Bebbington said. “Every bit of green space has to be available 
for development because suddenly land is gold, especially to local 
authorities that don’t have any money. These spaces are community assets 
that help to keep us healthy and they are very important. They connect 
communities but they are taking them away from us.”

‘This is where we climbed trees, played rounders, kissed in the bushes. 
It was our playground’ Janine Bebbington

[end]









-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/private/diggers350/attachments/20191216/a9db70cb/attachment.html>