Commons–Registration–Meaning of ‘allotment’ of land within section 23(1) of the Commons Registration Act 1965
This was an
appeal by way of case stated under section 18(1) of the Commons Registration
Act 1965 whereby the
wrong in deciding that High Wycombe Rye was not a ‘town or village green’
within the meaning of section 1(1)(a) of the Act. The society contended that
the commissioner was wrong in holding, on an objection by Wycombe District
Council, that an ‘allotment’ of land under an Act for the exercise or
recreation of the inhabitants of an area, within the meaning of section 23(1)
of the Act, cannot take place without a formal transfer of the land. The
society asked that the Rye be placed on the Register of Village Greens. The
district council, owners of the land, opposed the application.
Dennis Pugh
(instructed by G B & L Ellis) appeared for the society; R A Campbell
(instructed by the solicitor to Wycombe District Council) represented the local
authority.
Giving
judgment, BRIGHTMAN J said that section 22(1) of the Commons Registration Act
1965, the definition section, defined ‘town or village green’ as ‘land which
has been allotted by or under any Act for the exercise or recreation of the
inhabitants of any locality or on which the inhabitants of any locality have a
customary right to indulge in lawful sports and pastimes or on which the
inhabitants of any locality have indulged in such sports and pastimes as of
right for not less than twenty years.’
The society
contended that the land was allotted for this purpose under the Chepping
Wycombe Corporation Act 1927, whereby the land was deemed to be a public park
and pleasure ground, and was required to be retained by the corporation for
that purpose. But he (his Lordship) did not think it right to read the 1927
local Act as ‘allotting’ lands to the corporation ‘for the exercise or
recreation of the inhabitants of any locality.’
The land was included in the local Act for quite a different reason: to
define the purposes for which it had to be held by the corporation, and to
define the powers exercisable by the corporation over it.
The appeal
was dismissed with costs.
