73.Applications can be made under section 15(1) of the 2006 Act to register land as a town or village green, broadly, where the land has been used “as of right” for lawful sports and pastimes by a significant number of people in the local community for at least twenty years. Use “as of right” means without force, secrecy or permission, the rationale being that a landowner must be in a position to know that a right is being asserted and acquiesce in the assertion of the right.
74.This section inserts a new section 15A into the 2006 Act which allows an owner of land in England (as defined in section 61(3) of the 2006 Act) to deposit a statement and map with the commons registration authority, the effect of which is to bring to an end any period of use as of right for lawful sports and pastimes on the land to which the statement relates. The form of the statement and map will be prescribed by regulations which can provide for the statement to be combined with a statement or declaration made to counter rights of way claims under section 31(6) of the Highways Act 1980. Regulations may provide for the statement to refer to a map deposited under section 31(6) of the Highways Act 1980. The aim is to reduce the administrative burden on landowners who, for example, wish to make statements or declarations for both purposes at the same time.
75.Where the requisite period of twenty years’ use as of right has already accrued by the time the deposit of the statement and map takes place, an application for registration of the land as a town or village green can still be made within the relevant period from the date of the deposit in reliance on section 15(3) of the 2006 Act. In relation to land in England, the relevant period specified in section 15(3)(c) of the 2006 Act is (by virtue of section 14 of this Act) reduced from two years to one year.
76.The deposit of the statement and map will not prevent commencement of a new period of recreational use as of right, but an owner of land may deposit subsequent statements in order to interrupt future periods of use.
77.The Secretary of State has the power to prescribe in regulations the steps a commons registration authority must take in relation to a statement and map deposited with it, as well as the manner and period within which such steps must be completed. An example of how this power may be used is to require a commons registration authority to give notice of the deposit of a statement and map, in order to make the local community aware that any recreational use of the land as of right has been interrupted, triggering the operation of the grace period for an application to be made in reliance on section 15(3) of the 2006 Act (in cases where the criteria for registration have been satisfied).
78.Subsection (5) of new section 15A allows a landowner to make a statement referring to a map which accompanied an earlier statement, whether the landowner is the same person that deposited the earlier statement or not. For example a successor in title may wish to treat a map provided with a statement deposited by the previous landowner as accompanying his later statement.
79.The Secretary of State may make regulations prescribing the fees payable in relation to the depositing of a statement and when a statement is to be regarded as having been deposited with the commons registration authority.
80.Any straddling agreement made under section 4(3) of the 2006 Act or section 2(2) of the Commons Registration Act 1965 which has the effect of requiring an owner of land in England to deposit a statement with a registration authority in Wales, is disregarded to avoid imposing new burdens on Welsh registration authorities.
81.This section also inserts a new section 15B in the 2006 Act which requires each commons registration authority to keep a register containing prescribed information about statements and maps deposited with that authority. Such information may be included in a register maintained by the authority under section 31A of the Highways Act 1980 and regulations may make provision for the creation of a new part in such registers for that purpose.
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