Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2013/January 2014 | Page 112
coffee
break
advice.
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Roach Pittis advice
Roach Pittis Solicitors, 60-66 Lugley Street, Newport, PO30 5EU
t.01983 524431 - e. [email protected]
By Emma
Gifford
Public Rights of Way / Village Greens
M
embers of the public
are able to make a case
to the local authority
for registering a public
right of way where they
can provide evidence that a particular
path or way has been used by the public
as of right for a continuous period of 20
years or more.
In similar fashion members of the
public can make a case for registering a
Town or Village Green by establishing
that an area of land has been used by the
public for recreation or similar purposes,
again for a continuous period of 20 years.
This latter process, seeking to register
a Town or Village Green, has become
popular with objectors to development:
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what better way to impede a planning
application than to establish that the
subject of the development is a public
recreation area?
Under Section 31(6) Highways Act 1980
it is possible for a land owner to negate
any claim of public right of way by filing
a written statement accompanied by
a map and, until recently, a statutory
declaration. These papers are lodged with
the local authority, effectively making
a public statement that there is no
intention on the part of the land owner to
dedicate a right of way. The rebuttal has
until recently operated for a period of ten
years from the date of lodgement.
In October this year the procedure
under the Highways Act was refined.
There is no longer any need to lodge a
statutory declaration and, furthermore,
the rebuttal operates for 20 years from
lodgement rather than 10 years as used to
be the case.
Of even greater interest, however, is the
fact that it is now open to a land owner
to deposit a statement and map with the
local authority so as prevent any new
entitlement to a Village Green. Obviously
if the public has already accumu