The villagers using an 1857 law to beat the developers

When visualising a village green, an idyllic square with a pond, cricket pitch and war memorial will most likely come to mind.

Small strips of scrubland, concrete quaysides, disused quarries and car parks will be far from the imagination.

Yet thanks to a law dating back to 1857, the most unlikely of locations can officially be classed as a village green – the highest form of land protection in the UK.

They’ve become the holy grail for Nimbys, who strive to secure classification for local plots of land, however big or small. Once granted this golden status, spaces are shielded from development indefinitely, regardless of their ownership.

Last month, a resident in Bristol – where more than 40,000 people are on the housing waiting list – was blocked from building a home at the end of his cul-de-sac after neighbours secured village green status for the plot.

They argued the land is used for summer picnics, the occasional tea party and that it had simply become a “place to stop and chat” while taking a shortcut to the nearby Tesco.

For land to become a village green, residents must prove it has been used for either “sports, pastimes and recreation” for at least 20 consecutive years.

Elsewhere, residents in Ashford, Kent, recently bagged village green status for a narrow 1.25-acre plot close to the town’s Sainsbury’s, while campaigners still await a decision on a field in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

Walking the dog, kicking a ball about, flying a kite or picking blackberries are examples applicants can cite as evidence.

Ashley Clark, who masterminded the successful bid for Britain’s biggest village green stretching 52 acres in Whitstable, Kent, said they are the pinnacle symbol of land protection.

“Village greens are the Rolls Royce as they cannot be topped,” he said. “They are indefinite and protected in perpetuity.

“There are various other forms of land protections, but they don’t come near to village greens. Sites of Specific Scientific Interest, ancient woodland and local wildlife sites are still subject to the planning process, so they don’t have the same level of protection.

“Once somewhere is registered as a village green, no one can develop or enclose it.”

Landowners can fight back by challenging the decision in the courts, as is the case with an ongoing feud over a recreation ground in Stoke, yet deep pockets are needed to cover the lengthy process.

In 2021, transport company TW Logistics lost a 13-year legal battle against residents in Mistley, Essex, after campaigners secured village green status for a concrete quayside.

But the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils, previously said the nationwide application process was welcoming “malicious, vexatious and incomplete proposals” for “clearly ridiculous” village greens.

It said the vast number of bids was hitting taxpayers in the pocket and blocking housebuilding. The Telegraph approached the LGA for its current viewpoint, but it declined to comment.

Defra previously published figures showing the number of submitted village green applications each year, with 377 put through between 2011 and 2013. Of these, 107 were successful.

The government department told us it doesn’t have up-to-date figures, but Rico Wojtulewicz, of industry body the National Federation of Housebuilders, said: “We are hearing people saying it’s coming up more often”.

Such action can frustrate developers, prevent councils hitting house building targets and scupper even the smallest of planning applications, as seen with the Bristol case in the suburb of Henleaze.

One objector to the village green proposal, who was in the vast minority, expressed how they were disappointed that neighbours “feel some kind of entitlement to demand access to someone else’s property and to determine what they may, and may not, do with it”.

“I feel very sad that the narrow-minded ‘Nimby attitude’ being demonstrated here is all too common and I believe it to be entirely without merit or justification,” they wrote on the local authority’s planning portal.

Other applications haven’t been successful. A bid to turn a tiny grassy triangle in the remote Cumbrian village of Rosgill into a green has been thrown out, and the same goes for a 40-metre stretch on a Horsham estate used by the community for Clap for Carers and VE Day parties.

Mr Wojtulewicz says the village green law is “fragmented” and doesn’t take local housing needs into account.

“We broadly welcome the opportunity to safeguard community land, which can be fantastic, but it’s a fragmented approach that gets abused by people who haven’t thought about the broader community needs,” he said.

“You’re giving a few people more power, which then means development can be blocked and there’s no plan for where else it can go to address the housing need.”

Mr Ashley Clark, a former police officer who sat on Canterbury City Council for 12 years, warns that developers have got wise to village green applications.

“They buy land and immediately put signs up saying ‘private land’ or ‘entry is permission only’. Once they do that, it effectively prevents a village green application,” he said.

“As access is denied, people can’t then prove they’ve used it continuously for 20 years.”

Local authorities give guidance to landowners on how to blockade village green attempts from locals.

Isle of Wight Council, for example, states on its website that a “landowner could do several things, fence the land off so securely so that it is not used ‘as of right’, or if he doesn’t mind people using the land he can display notices so as to give permissive rights which can be withdrawn at any time, or restrict access and maybe charge people for using it”.

What makes a village green bid fail?

A clause in the Growth and Infrastructure Bill 2013 states that locals can’t register a piece of land as a village green if developers have applied for permission to build there.

Applications will also fail if the land in question is identified for potential development in a local or neighbourhood plan.

Where most fail, however, is in the 20-year rule. The law states if it can’t be proved that the land has been “used by local people for lawful sports and pastimes ‘as of right’ (i.e. without permission, force or secrecy) for at least 20 years” then the bid will be rejected.