Village Green Inquiry – Land At Walton, Essex [2013]
Tom appeared on behalf of the landowner in this village green inquiry held in November 2012. The inquiry covered a range of aspects of recent Village Green statute and caselaw, particularly in relation to issues of use ‘as of right’ in light of the recent CA judgment in Barkas as well as considerations of the meaning of ‘neighbourhoods’, the requirement for continuity of use and the relevance of permissive powers being exercised on the subject land by other statutory bodies. The Inspector in his report dated January 2013 agreed with the position of the landowner and recommended that that on the evidence he received, together with the submissions and arguments of the parties, registration as a Town or Village Green was not justified, because the criteria in Section 15(2) of The Commons Act 2006 were not met, in particular the criteria relating to “as of right” use, and use for a sufficiently continuous period of 20 years up to the time of the application.
