Commons—Registration—“User as of right”

Supreme Court, Lord Hope DP, Lord Rodger, Lord Walker, Lord Brown and Lord Kerr SCJJ, 3 Mar 2010

“As of right”, referred to in s 15 of the Commons Act 2006 (CA 2006), requires focus on the manner in which the land in question has been used, or ‘the quality of the user’, without any examination of whether the users themselves believed that they had the right to so use.

Charles George QC, Jeremy Pike and Cain Ormondroyd (instructed by Irwin Mitchell) for the claimant. George Laurence QC and Rodney Stewart Smith (instructed by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Legal Services) for the authority. Ross Crail (instructed by Ward Hadaway) for the developer.

The claimant applied for a piece of land in the jurisdiction of the defendant local authority to be registered as a town or village green. The authority appointed an inspector. He observed that for many decades before 2002 the disputed land had formed part of a golf course, which was in regular