Monday, 2 January 2017

Calls for 2017 to be the ‘Year of the Village Green’

The Open Spaces Society, Britain’s oldest national conservation body, has called on local authorities and developers throughout England to make 2017 the Year of the Village Green, by voluntary registering their land as greens.

The society urges developers to include registered village greens within their sites so that local people have a guaranteed green space for recreation which is preserved for ever. It also urges local authorities to register their own land so that even if it is sold, it is protected.

Kate Ashbrook, the society’s general secretary, said: “The registration process is simple; the only requirements are to provide proof of ownership, obtain the consent of any leaseholder or chargeholder, complete a form and send it to the commons registration authority (county or unitary council).

“Once the land is registered as a town or village green, it is protected by nineteenth-century laws from development or encroachment, and local people have rights of informal recreation there. “So if a planning authority considers that a developer should offer a mitigating benefit to the neighbourhood, it can insist that the developer registers part of its site as a village green.

Read more at: http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/news/calls-for-2017-to-be-the-year-of-the-village-green-1-7754338

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