R (on the application of Lewis) (Appellant) v Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and another (Respondents), UKSC 2009/0167
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Location: Case Types Planning |
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| Posted by: Stephen Moore |
11/03/2010 17:09 |
The Appellant was one of five local residents who applied under Section 15 of the Commons Act 2006 (‘the 2006 Act’) to have a piece of land in the town of Redcar registered as a town or village green. When land is successfully registered as a town or village green under the 2006 Act, the inhabitants of the locality concerned are entitled to exercise ‘lawful sports and pastimes’ over the land, such as walking, or playing informal games. Registration typically prevents development on the land taking place. In order to register land for such use, however, the inhabitants are required to demonstrate under s.15, broadly, that a significant number of them have indulged, ‘as of right’, in lawful sports and pastimes over the land for a period of 20 years.
This appeal concerned the meaning of ‘as of right’ in the 2006 Act. The land in question had been used, until 2002, as a golf course by the tenants of the land. The inspector who conducted a public inquiry into registration recommended to the relevant registration authority - the Respondent - that the land should not be registered. He found that although the local inhabitants had indulged in lawful sports and pastimes on the land for 20 years, they had ‘overwhelmingly deferred’ to the landowner’s use of the land by, amongst other things, waiting for the golfers to play their shots before they walked across the course. Such use, he concluded, was not ‘as of right’. On the inspector’s recommendation, the council decided not to register the land. On an application for judicial review by the Appellant, the High Court and the Court of Appeal both upheld the council’s decision. The Appellant appealed. |
| Court: UK Supreme Court (UK) |
| Click on this link to access the full judgement. |
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