Landowner Statements - Village Greens

Briefing note on landowner statements from Open Spaces Society

Town and village greens are land where local people have enjoyed informal recreation, for at least 20 years, without challenge or permission.  Once the land has been registered, by the county or unitary authority (the registration authority) as a green it is protected from development.

Now landowners can submit to the registration authority a statement and map which challenge people’s informal use of land and thereby threaten the public’s ability to register the land as a town or village green.  Once a statement has been deposited and notices posted on the land, local people have one year in which to submit an application to register the land as a green based on 20 years’ use for informal recreation.

The Open Spaces Society has asked all registration authorities to tell it of any such statements.  However, it would be valuable if all local councils were to do this too.  There is no guarantee that a notice will remain on the land for long, so the only way you can be sure of knowing about the threat to your local green space is by getting the council to inform you.

We recommend that you contact your unitary council’s commons registration department and ask to be notified of any landowner statements made under section 15A of the Commons Act 2006.  (These may be combined with landowner declarations relating to public rights of way, under section 31(6) of the Highways Act 1980.)

Once you know of a landowner statement, you can check the land to see whether it is eligible to register as a green.  The Open Spaces Society’s book Getting Greens Registered helps with this.  If it is eligible as a green, local people have one year in which to gather evidence of use and submit an application.  If it is not eligible you might wish to consider alternative ways of protecting the land, such as designation as Local Green Space.

Details are on the Open Spaces Society’s website 
You can contact the society for further information and help, although the society will ask you to join if you are not already a member.