CONSULTATION On a Proposal for a New Act of Parliament to transfer the ownership and management of to a new Charity East coast mainline railway CLOSING DATE FOR RESPONSES: 30 AUGUST 2019 SUPPORTING PAPERS RESPONSES Can be found at By email to: [email protected] By post to: W O Boyes Clerk to the Churchwardens of Monken Hadley Church 45 Clifford Road Barnet, EN5 5PD http://www.monkenhadleycommon.net/consultation.html June 2019 Contents Part 1: Background ..................................................................................1 1 Introduction .....................................................................................................1 2 Location of the Common..................................................................................3 3 Physical description of the Common................................................................3 4 History of the Common....................................................................................4 5 Legal title to the Common................................................................................5 6 Finance and the Friends of Hadley Common....................................................6 7 The Management Plan .....................................................................................7 8 The Churchwardens' functions.........................................................................7 9 The Commoners as beneficiaries of the statutory trust ...................................8 10 The identity and registration of Commoners .................................................8 11 The functions of the Commoners under the 1777 Act .................................10 12 Rights of the Commoners and others...........................................................10 13 Public access, planning and conservation ....................................................11 14 The Rules......................................................................................................12 Part 2: The issues which need to be addressed ....................................13 15 The main issues ............................................................................................13 Part 3: Effecting change.........................................................................17 16 Mechanics of Change ...................................................................................17 17 Proposals for legislation: Transfer of ownership and management to a third party..................................................................................................................18 18 Proposals for legislation: other provisions ...................................................20 Part 4: Consultation questions and how to respond.............................21 19 Questions for consultees..............................................................................21 20 List of Consultees .........................................................................................22 21 How to Respond...........................................................................................23 22 Obtaining documents...................................................................................23 23 Closing Date of the Consultation..................................................................23 24 Next Steps ....................................................................................................23 Part 1: Background 1 Introduction 1.1 This consultation is being carried out by the Management Committee1 of Monken Hadley Common (“the Common”2) on behalf of and with the full agreement of the Churchwardens of the Parish Church of Monken Hadley in the County of Middlesex ("the Churchwardens"3) which holds the Common in trust. 1.2 The purpose of this consultation is to seek views on proposals for a new Act of Parliament which would enable the ownership of the Common and the assets of the Churchwardens to be transferred to a new charity which would own and manage the Common for the benefit of the general public. 1.3 The Common was established by the Enfield Chase Act of 1777. One of the purposes of this Act was to divide up the Chase into smaller areas, including the Common. It is a complicated and almost unreadable document, made worse by the fact that only 9 of the 133 sections relate to the Common. The Act also included provisions about other land in the parishes of Enfield, Edmonton and South Mymms (as it was then spelt). Those provisions are not relevant to this consultation. “Le Roy le Veult” - “The King Wills it” King George 3rd’s Assent to the Enfield Chase Bill 1 "the Management Committee" - the committee elected in accordance with “the Rules” to be responsible for the management of “the Common” on behalf of “the Churchwardens” and to supervise the work of “the Curators”; “the Rules” are the Rules and Orders made from time to time under section 60 of the Enfield Chase Act of 1777, 17 Geo III c.17 (“the 1777 Act”) for the governance of the Common (the current Rules were made in 1981); and “the Curators” are the individuals responsible (under Rules 10 & 31) for its day to day management. 2 "the Common" - the land called MONKEN HADLEY COMMON, the title of which is registered at HM Land Registry under numbers AGL278910 & AGL359524, and broadly comprises: 1) land which is commonly known as HADLEY COMMON; plus 2) land which is commonly known as HADLEY WOODS; plus 3) certain small areas of land which are leased, and are not accessible to the public. 3 "the Churchwardens" - the “Churchwardens of the Parish Church of Monken Hadley in the County of Middlesex” which as a statutory corporation (not as individuals) is the present owner of the freehold of the Common, which it holds in trust, along with other assets, under the terms of sections 5 and 115 of the 1777 Act. Copies of the 1777 Act, the 1981 Rules and Orders and the Title Plans can be downloaded from the Consultation web page at http://www.monkenhadleycommon.net/consultation.html. 1 1.4 The Common changed a long time ago from being land used for the benefit of surrounding landowners for grazing and other rural activities. The illustrations herein are postcards from the first half of the 20th century. It is now a largely wooded area providing a vital habitat for flora and fauna on the edge of north London which is used for recreational purposes by the general public. It has public highways across it, and the East Coast mainline railway physically divides it as can be seen on the plan on the front of this document. 1.5 Unbeknown to those involved with the Common, the 1777 Act was repealed in 1978 on the recommendation of the Law Commission, who believed that it was redundant. After this was discovered in about 1990, the repeal was reversed by section 2 of the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1993. At that time, the Churchwardens and Management Committee considered the option of asking for a new Act of Parliament but it was not pursued as it was too complicated and costly and there would have been problems with validating intervening acts done by the Churchwardens during the period of the repeal. A petition for a new Act had also been considered in 1978 when the Churchwardens decided that they could no longer nor did they want to undertake the management of the Common but this was rejected at that time on the grounds of cost. 1.6 The fundamental issues which the Churchwardens want to address are, firstly, that the provisions of the 1777 Act and the Rules and Orders made under it are no longer appropriate for the proper management and use of the Common and, secondly, their wish to divest themselves of ownership of the Common. 1.7 The main provisions of the 1777 Act which relate to the Common are: Section 4 - the allotment of land to the Parish of Monken Hadley; Section 5 - the apportionment of 50 acres of the Monken Hadley Allotment to the incumbent of Monken Hadley Parish Church and 190 acres to the Churchwardens in trust for the persons specified; Section 6 - proviso for trees within 60 yards of the boundary of the Common; Section 11 - Pinfolds within the Chase to remain vested in His Majesty; [applies to all parts of the former Enfield Chase] Section 13 - allotments to be accepted as compensation in lieu of other rights; [applies to all parts of the former Enfield Chase] Section 60 - power to a make Rules and Orders; [applies to all parts of the former Enfield Chase] Section 70 - Bringing or defending legal proceedings in the name of the Churchwardens; [applies to all parts of the former Enfield Chase] Section 71 - provisions relating to gates etc.; [applies to all parts of the former Enfield Chase] Section 115 - incorporation of the Churchwardens [applies to all parts of the former Enfield Chase]. 2 1.8 The Churchwardens and the Management Committee have agreed that there should be a consultation to obtain the views of interested persons prior to depositing a Private Bill in Parliament to provide for the transfer of the ownership of the Common to a new charity, to provide for the partial repeal and amendment of the provisions of the 1777 Act that relate to the Common, and for related matters. 2 Location of the Common 2.1 The Common is a roughly wedge shaped tract of land about 2.5 km long running east south east from the village of Monken Hadley (Grid Ref: TQ250973) in the London Borough of Barnet; it tapers from about 0.5 km wide at the broadest point at the western end near to Monken Hadley Church to only about 50 metres at the eastern end at Games Road, Cockfosters (Grid