Landmark Village Green Decision

The High Court has recently granted the Landowner's application for rectification of the register of Town or Village Greens by cancelling the registration even though some 9 years has elapsed since the land was first registered.

This is the latest in a long line of significant decisions on Town or Village Greens and is of particular relevance to Pengillys , not only because the Village Green concerned falls within the Borough of Weymouth & Portland but also because Pengillys were instructed by the successful land owner.

The decision follows a lengthy Court Hearing, some of which, unusually, was held in Weymouth in preference to the usual High Court in London and after a full review of the evidence Mr Justice Morgan decided that the registration should never have been made in the first place.  Further, he considered it was just to order rectification in view of the substantial difference between the value of the land subject to the registration and its value without.

Mr Justice Morgan recognised that there was a balancing exercise involved in taking into account the proper arguements made on behalf of both the land owner and the local inhabitants but that in reaching its decision, if rectification were ordered, the land owner would be free of burdens that should not have been placed on it and the inhabitants would be denied rights in the future which they should not have enjoyed in the past.  On this basis the land owner succeeded.  The arguements were complex and the amount of evidence gathered in preparation for the Hearing was significant.  Pengillys are therefore delighted to have been involved in the successful outcome to this important case which has now become a leading authority in this area of law.