Three New Town Greens?

There could be three new Town Greens registered in Bristol this month.

The ‘Laundry Field’ was voluntarily declared as a TVG by the landowners this week following and agreement with Snuff Mills Action Group.

The next meeting of the Council’s Pulic Rights of Way & Greens Committee (PROWG) will consider recommendations to declare two sites in Bristol as Town or Village Greens (TVG) – Wellington Hill Playing Field & a site at Bramble Drive, Sneyd Park. The committee is being recommended to reject the application for third site, Tackley Green.

The papers for the PROWG meeting, to be held on Monday 27th January, can be seen here. There are separate reports for the three sites to be considered at the meeting and a further report giving an update on other current applications, including the Laundry Field.

The site on a Roundabout at Bramble Drive is privately owned land and the land owner is not objecting to the application.

The other two sites to be considered at the meeting are owned by the Council. The application for Wellington Hill Playing Field was made in October 2010 with the support of Friends of Horfield Common. The Council objected to the application in May 2011 and it was referred to an independent inspector but then in December 2013 the Council withdrew its objection. The land was held by the Council for educational use rather than public open space.

The recommendation for a rejection of the application for Tackley Green is on the basis that the land is held by the Council as public open space and therefore there is an implied permission for the public to use it. Use of the land was therefore ‘by right’ (with permission) and not ‘as of right’ (without force, secrecy or permission) as required for the land to be registered as a TVG.

If the recommendations are followed then the two new sites will bring the total number of Town or Village Greens in Bristol registered under the 2006 Commons Act to seven. In addition there are fourteen registered under the Commons Registration Act 1965 and five areas of Common Land.

All these areas (including the newly registered Laundry Field) are now shown on the Council’s mapping system. The full list, including links to each area on the mapping system can be seen via the link below:

www.bristolparksforum.org.uk/BristolCommonsGreens.pdf

Town & Village Green Update

The Public Rights of Way & Greens (PROWG) committee met on Monday 8th July. They agreed to ignore the inspector’s view on the Laundry Field and allow the change to the application area so that the agreement could go ahead, there is an article from the Bristol Post here

The BPF committee submitted a statement to the meeting that can be seen here

The committee also considered Stoke Lodge and agreed to make a final decision at its next meeting in October as reported here

Following the recent changes to TGV legislation through the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 a new Consultation on registration of new town or village greens runs until Monday 19 August 2013 and can be read hereĀ 

The new Act has restricted the right to apply for land to be a TGV where it has been listed for development ot a planning application has been submitted for the land. The consultation considers extending the restrictions where land is part of a neighbourhood planning process.

Growth and Infrastructure Bill

The following have information on Growth & Infrastructure Bill which received Royal Assent on 25 April 2013. This Bill prevents land from being registered as a Town or Village Green where an application for planning permission has been made, or the land has been allocated for development.

Growth and Infrastructure Bill – Summary on Open Spaces Society website

Growth and Infrastructure Bill details on Parliament.UK

Second reading of Growth and Infrastructure Bill November 2012

Defra Consultation on Town Greens

In 2011 Defra carried out a consultation on Town Greens. Bristol Parks Forum responded to the consultation.

The summary of responses were then published by Defra in November 2012.

Defra Town Green Consultation, Summary of responses – 14th November 2012

BPF Response to Defra Town Green Consultation – agreed 15th October 2011

Defra Consultation on Town & Village Green Applications (closed on 17 October 2011)

BCC Review of Town & Village Green Procedure

During 2011 and 2012 the Council’s Public Rights of Way and Greens (PROWG) committee reviewed the procedure for deciding Town & Village Green applications.

Bristol Parks Forum made statements to the committee as part of the review and the committee accepted some of our suggestions.

The links below show the statements submitted and the reports which include detasils of the agreed procedure.

Report to PROWG, final BCC Town Green Procedure following consultation – June 2012

Minutes of PROWG meeting – 20 February 2012

BPF Statement to PROWG meeting – 20 February 2012

Report to PROWG, revised BCC Town Green Procedure following consultation – February 2012

BPF Response to BCC Town Green Consultation – December 2011

Bristol City Council Consultation on Town & Village Green Applications (closed on 13th December 2011)

BPF Committee Statement to Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee Meeting 18 April 2011

Details of Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee Meeting 18 April 2011

Ashton Vale Town Green

The links below have information about this applcation, following the outcome of the Judicial review the application for the northern part of the site will be refered back to the inspector.

BCC Press Release on Judicial Review 4 May 2012

Ashton Vale Report by Jan Ormondroyd, Chief Executive, BCC for PRW&G Committee Meeting 16 June 2011

Ashton Vale Applicants’ Submission dated 30 Nov 2011 (posted on bristol.indymedia.org)

BCC webpage with links to Ashton Vale Town Green Inspector’s Report