Village Green or Town Green – If granted, it’s the best protection from your green space being developed. The Open Space Society can help you with this process (if they have an available case officer; if not, then their website provides the documents you need).  This application is to the planning authority, and is primary meant for open space that is not owned by the community/council.  However, if you do apply for community/council owned land,  the council can voluntarily register the land.  Unfortunately, some councils will never do this as it prevents them from disposing of the green space as they wish (for instance, for ‘Greater Good’ projects like building a school).

Despite these caveats, the process of applying for Village/Town Green, sends a strong message to the council about the seriousness the community has for this piece of land.  Usually all the councillors know about the green space by the time the process is finished, which then diminishes the risk of the council suggesting the land for development in the Local Plan.

The process involves using either photographic or questionnaire evidence that the land has been used as a community space for 20 years – again, the Open Spaces Society can provide the questionnaire and guidence to the process.

The planning authorities have noticed that the incidence of application has increased in recent years and nearly all of these applications are in response to the land be planned for development.

Website for the Open Spaces Society

Our post about the Open Spaces Society