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230000 Open Spaces Spring AUTUMN 2009 VOLUME 29 No 6 D Registering commons D Our open day in Aldbury D Path change and expediency Opinion . 1 Taking action. 2 Path issues . 5 Our open day . 8 Far and wide . 10 COVER STORY Open forum. 15 Our vice-president Richard Reviews . 16 Mabey points to the route taken by the navvies from Tring Station in 1866, when they felled the illegal fencing erected International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) by Lord Brownlow near this spot 0265-8445 on Berkhamsted Common, Hertfordshire. The walk was part All rights reserved © Open Spaces Society of our open day at Aldbury on 15 August (see page 8). Photo: Kate Ashbrook. were sacrificed to the interests of habitat conservation. Inclosure Commoners are applying to retain a four-and-a-half-mile fence, marching across the Brecon Beacons National goes on Park. It was erected as an emergency measure during the foot-and-mouth The process of parliamentary outbreak in 2001 and was never inclosure which began in the removed. We have urged the Welsh eighteenth century has savaged the Assembly Government to get rid of the common land of England and Wales. fence and instead to put money into Now Barry Sheerman MP (Labour, shepherding, but with no success. Huddersfield) is attempting to right some of those wrongs, with his Nibbled away Common Land and Repeal of Inclosure Commons are nibbled away Acts Bill, the purpose of which is ‘to insidiously. We are opposing plans for reinstate rights of common and to a plant nursery which include making a reopen common land; to repeal the driveway over Furze Common at Inclosure Acts; and for connected Barsham in Suffolk. The planning purposes’. application does not mention the effect Splendid on common land but, as the member Sadly his bill will not progress far, but who alerted us says: ‘We are in the the aim is splendid and we must find midst of a prairie; commons are the ways to reclaim those thousands of only bit of wild Suffolk left’. acres of lost commons. And a few miles away, North The Commons Act 2006 enables us Norfolk District Council last year to apply to register commons which granted planning permission for a toilet slipped under the net of the Commons block and 22 static caravans on Upper Registration Act 1965, as explained by Sheringham Common––but we have Hugh Craddock (pages 2–4). Re- yet to receive an application for consent searcher Steve Byrne estimates that for common-land works there. there could be half a million acres of Last year, we wrote to all planning common land in England and Wales authorities urging them to take account which are eligible for re-registration. of commons and greens in considering Inclosure still goes on. We were planning applications, and to inform disappointed by the Secretary of State the applicant of his legal obligations, for Environment’s recent decision, but with little effect. following a public inquiry, to erect In 1866 we took direct action by fencing around Hartlebury Common in employing navvies (page 8) to fell Worcestershire, where we believe that unlawful fencing. Perhaps we should the ambience and public enjoyment again. KJA 1 withdrawn in the face of hostility from landowners (and sometimes graziers), or were rejected because of legal interpretations which went unchallenged until it was too late. And that was the end of the matter, until now. Part 1 of the Commons Act 2006 seeks to update the commons registers, catching up on 40 years of neglect. But it’s not just about capturing changes to rights of common and deregistering wrongly- registered cottages. It also affords an opportunity to put right some of the injustices wrought by the 1965 act. Initially at least, part 1 has been implemented in seven pilot registration areas: Blackburn with Darwen, Cornwall, Devon (but not Getting commons registered Plymouth or Torbay), Herefordshire, Part 1 of the Commons Act 2006 is Hertfordshire, Kent (not Medway) and already in force in seven pilot areas of Lancashire (not Blackpool). England. It affords the first opportunity in 40 years to review the registers of Ten actions to take in a pilot area common land and town or village greens It’s not yet possible to take action drawn up under the Commons throughout England: national roll-out is Registration Act 1965. Hugh Craddock, programmed for 2010–12. So what can you head of common land registration and do in one of the pilot areas? protection at the Department for • Voluntarily register a green: some Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, traditional greens were never registered, explains how you can get involved. but are owned by the parish council; Most members will be familiar with the others have been established with society’s origins in protecting common land lottery funds but could not be registered from exploitation by landowners eager to at the time. Approach the council or accommodate the relentless urbanisation of trustees, and propose a voluntary Victorian England. Many will know of the application for registration under role of the society in promoting the section 15(8): it’s quick and easy for a registration of village greens, and its landowner, it’s free, and registration guidance to potential applicants, Getting confers the greatest possible protection. Greens Registered. But how many have • Register a statutory common: some ever registered a new common? commons are managed by the local authority through a scheme made under Window the Commons Act 1899, or are More than 40 years ago, a few doughty regulated by a local act, but were not individuals, some of them supported by the registered under the 1965 act. Such Ramblers, some by the society, provisionally commons are vulnerable because non- registered many areas of common land and registration leaves them with uncertain green during the three-year window status, they are seldom mapped as conferred by the Commons Registration access land on Ordnance Survey maps, Act 1965. Many of those registrations were and may have weaker controls over confirmed, and such commons remain works which interfere with access. protected to this day. Equally, many were Anyone can apply to register under not. In some cases the claims could not paragraph 2 of schedule 2, if they can stand up to scrutiny. However others were produce the statutory evidence. 2 • Become a commoner: section 6 enables protection against abuse, and confirms the landowner to grant new rights of local people’s right of use for sports and common over an existing common. If a pastimes. You can apply under local common was registered without paragraph 5 of schedule 2 to transfer rights of common, ask the owner to land from the common land register to grant new rights, so that the community the greens register if you can show it has a direct interest in the management was a green at the date of provisional of the common. Rights must be attached registration. It will be more to other land in the locality (and are straightforward if the green was allotted exercisable by the owner or occupier of under an inclosure award, because that land): the rectory or the village hall proving evidence of use in the 1940s to could be candidates. A right need be no 1960s will be much more demanding. more than to graze one goose! Better still, encourage the owner to • Turn a development to advantage: most apply voluntarily under section 15(8). new road schemes and other • Register an allotment: some public developments affecting common land or parks and other lands allotted for greens have to provide exchange land, recreation under inclosure awards were to replace that which is lost to the never registered as greens (or as development. The exchange should be common land). Paragraph 3 of schedule registered by the developer, but 2 now enables anyone to apply to sometimes it’s overlooked. Anyone can register such land, if they can produce apply under paragraph 2 of schedule 3 evidence of the award. to register an exchange, but the • Rescind a withdrawal: many applicants applicant must be able to produce for provisional registration under the details of the exchange and evidence 1965 Act felt pressured to withdraw that it has taken place: this information their applications. Most withdrawn may be available from the developer cases can now be revisited. Try to find under the Environmental Information out why the application was withdrawn: Regulations 2004––or you could press if it didn’t stand up at the time, then it’s the developer to undertake this work not worth resurrecting it now. Use himself. Steve Byrne’s website to help you find • Revisit a ‘Box Hill’ common: some out the history, and decide if the land is provisional registrations of common still waste of the manor––see Revisit a land were cancelled by the commons ‘Box Hill’ common above. commissioner in line with the Box Hill • Get the boundary redrawn: common case, because the land was no longer and green boundaries aren’t always owned by the lord of the manor. The properly mapped in the registers. Hazeley Heath challenge reversed the Sometimes bits were left out. Compare earlier judgment, but 12 years too late. the registered boundaries with what’s Use the website of researcher Steve apparent on the ground and in historic Byrne at www.commonsreregistration. documents (such as inclosure awards or org.uk to identify cases where deeds under section 193 of the Law of provisional registrations were cancelled Property Act 1925). Ask the registration because of the misjudged Box Hill authority if you want to see the original ruling, and consider an application to application form and plan.
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