The owner of land on the outskirts of
Leeds Group plc, which owns five-and-a-half acres of a site known as Yeadon Banks, in Yeadon, had claimed that the council, which owns the rest, was wrong to designate it as a TVG, thereby preventing development and reducing its value.
It had hoped to persuade the Court of Appeal to overturn an April
ruling supporting the council’s decision and to to declassify the land.
However, the court ruled that the council’s decision should stand.
Sullivan LJ rejected the claim that the legal test for a TVG had not been met because users came from two neighbourhoods, and not the requisite single one.
Douglas Jones, who is chairman of Keep Yeadon Banks Green and who acted on behalf of the residents of the areas, known locally as “The Haws” and “Banksfield”, had applied for TVG registration on the ground that the local public had enjoyed use of the land as of right for a continuous period of 20 years.
However, Leeds Group argued that, under the Commons Registration Act 1965 as amended by the 2000 Countryside and Rights of Way Act, it is not sufficient, in order to satisfy the test, that the general public uses an area of land. Rather, the users of the land have to come predominantly from one locality or a neighbourhood within that locality.
Jones had argued that The Haws and Banksfield constituted a neighbourhood. The council agreed and granted the registration.
The High Court judge ruled that the two areas did not constitute one neighbourhood, but supported the council’s decision on the basis that they were two neighbourhoods that each qualified within the locality.
Sullivan LJ said: “Like the judge, I can see no logical reason why ‘any neighbourhood’ should not include two or more neighbourhoods. There is nothing in the language of the subsection to suggest that ‘any neighbourhood’ must mean only one neighbourhood.”
Leeds Group plc v Leeds City Council Court of Appeal (Arden, Sullivan, Tomlinson LJJ) 20 December 2010.
George
