The House of Lords has reversed the Court of Appeal ruling in the Oxfordshire CC v Oxford City Council village green case. Charles Mynors discusses the implications
Since the landmark decision of the House of Lords in R v Oxfordshire CC, ex parte Sunningwell PC [1999] 3 All ER 385 five years ago, the submission of an application to register land as a town or village green has become a surprisingly successful means of preventing development. Local people who have sought unsuccessfully to prevent the allocation of an area of open space for development at the local planning inquiry, and the subsequent granting of planning permission for that development, then apply to have the land registered as a green, under the Commons Registration Act 1965, on the basis of it having been used by local inhabitants for recreation for the past 20 years or more.
Until recently, this appeared to be an e...
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