The Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 received royal assent
on 25 April 2013 and its provisions amend the legislation surrounding Town
and Village Greens (TVGs). The new provisions are helpful to landowners.
The new Act amends the Commons Act 2006 in the following ways:
a landowner has the option to deposit a statement concerning
his land with the Commons Registration Authority. At
present an applicant must prove 20 years’ use of the land as a TVG.
The statement should prove a helpful way for landowners to ‘stop the
clock’ as it will bring to an end the time in which local residents have
been using the land as a TVG. It is certainly more discreet than a
landowner erecting numerous signs or fencing his land (which are the type
of actions a landowner can take at present). Such actions often
precipitate an application by local residents for land to be given TVG
status;
the time limit for an applicant
to make an application after the use of the land as a TVG has ceased (e.g.
as a result of a fence being erected) is reduced from two years
to one year;
it
excludes TVG
applications where a ‘trigger event’ occurs (such as
when various applications for planning permission are first
published).
Only the latter provision is in force as at today's date but even on its own it substantially
curtails local residents' capacity to restrict or delay development of land, which will be very welcome news to landowners
and developers.