Third Village Green Status achieved

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At the March 2017 meeting of the MK Borough Council Regulatory Committee held in the Civic Offices, Village Green Status was granted to a parcel of open land in the parish of Old Woughton, adjacent to the existing Green, which already has village green status.  This was despite objections raised by the Parks Trust, who lease the land, and the owners, MK Borough Council. The applications had been made within the guidelines of the 2006 Commons Act of Parliament. The necessary time has now passed following the meeting, when an appeal could have been made and so village green status is confirmed.

This is now the third successful VG application following granting of the Woughton Park and Passmore village greens last year. The VG application was submitted by Woughton on the Green resident Philip Nash, also a parish councillor. At the regulatory committee meeting he and parish councillors Charlotte Hall and Andrew Humphries put the case to the committee. This followed  a campaign in which 68 residents had filled in questionnaires to support the application. Thanks are due to all residents who took the time to support the application and fill in the questionnaires. 

The main benefits of registering land as a green are to:

  • secure permanent recording of the land as a town or village green,
  • protect the land from development and other forms of detrimental activity by bringing the registered land within the protection of the nineteenth-century legislation under which it is an offence to build on a green or to interrupt its use or enjoyment by the local community,
  • secure the right of local people to enjoy the land for recreation in perpetuity,
  • give the registered land a new status as land for the community, to be valued and enjoyed,
  • ensure that existing and prospective owners are aware from the outset of the established recreational function of the land, so helping to avoid any future conflicts.

There is one more village green application, for the Orchard, that will be heard by the next Regulatory Committee meeting on the 6th September.

See original Village Green post here.