The possibility of registering open land as a town and village green under Commons Act 2006 continues to cause many headaches for developers. Considerable publicity was given to the decision of the Supreme Court in Redcar [2010] where a registration was allowed in respect of land owned by the local authority which formed part of a golf course, but which was also used by local residents for informal recreation. It was held that their use had been ‘as a right’ even though they had deferred to the golfers if golf was in play. 


A village green can be registered if ‘a significant number of the inhabitants of any locality... have indulged as a right in lawful sports and pastimes on the land for a period of at least 20 years’.

The Supreme Court has handed down an important judgment about village greens, after unanimously finding that locals had been using a local area ‘as of right’, even though they had always deferred to its use by golfers (and left when asked to do so by golfers).

A village green can be registered if ‘a significant number of the inhabitants of any locality... have indulged as a right in lawful sports and pasttimes on the land for a period of at least 20 years’.

‘A significant number of the inhabitants of any locality, or of any neighbourhood within a locality, have indulged as of right in lawful sports and pastimes on the land for a period of at least 20 years.’