New Judgment: R (Newhaven Port & Properties Ltd) v East Sussex County Council & Anor [2015] UKSC 7
25 Wednesday Feb 2015
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On appeal from: [2013] EWCA Civ 276.
Newhaven Town Council applied to the County Council to register a harbour foreshore as a town or village green on the basis that it had been used by a significant number of local inhabitants “as of right” for a period of at least 20 years. The issue raised was whether the County Council was wrong in law to decide to register the Beach as a village green under the Commons Act 2006. Held: upholding the harbour company’s appeal. The pubic enjoyed an implied licence arising from the harbour company’s Byelaws and therefore the use was not “as of right”. Use “as of right” means use without any right, whether derived from custom and usage, statute, prescription or express or implied permission of the owner. A majority felt that the Commons Act 2006 could not be interpreted so as to enable registration of land as a town or village green if such registration was incompatible with some other statutory function.
For judgment, please download: [2015] UKSC 7
For Court’s press summary, please download: Court’s Press Release
For a non-PDF version of the judgment, please visit: BAILII
3 comments
Christopher Whitmey said:
06/03/2015 at 11:43
You say, ” A majority felt that the Commons Act 2006 could be interpreted so as to enable registration of land as a town or village green if such registration was incompatible with some other statutory function.”.
Is this compatible with the majority (4) view at [103]?: “in any event the 2006 Act cannot operate by reason of incompatibility with the statutory basis on which NPP’s predecessors acquired the land, and the statutory purposes for which they held, and now NPP holds, that land.”
Anthony Fairclough said:
11/03/2015 at 10:57
A missing word! Now corrected.
Christopher Whitmey said:
12/03/2015 at 17:08
Esaily done – thank you.