A pair of landowners have failed in a High Court bid to stop a field in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, from being registered as a town and village green.
Landowners Charles Allaway and Rosemary Pollock brought the case contesting the decision by Oxfordshire County Council to register the 14-acre agricultural field known as Humpty Hill.
In a hearing earlier this month their lawyer, Douglas Edwards QC, contested that the government planing inspector who made the recommendation erred in law. But in a ruling today Mrs Justice Patterson disagreed. The claimants “own the application site” according to the ruling.
In his report, the planning inspector found that Humpty Hill was “a classic case of land being used for ‘dog walking and playing with children’ which may be, in modern life the main function of a village green”.
The claimants disagreed. “The claimants contend that the inspector erred in taking into account use of the perimeter paths, including the public path, as lawful sports and pastimes counting towards the establishment of a town or village green,” the judge said in her ruling.
Even so, she found that the inspector “had taken great care in observing and assessing the use of land, including the way in which footpaths had been used.” As there was no error in law, she rejected the claimants’ arguments.
She also rejected arguments that the inspector had erred when assessing whether the land was used by “signifiant numbers” of people.
Allaway v Oxfordshire County Council. Administrative Court (Patterson J) 27 Oct 2016
