To consider a report by the Corporate Director for Economic Growth and Infrastructure.
Minutes:
Consideration was given on an application -
CLD 2018/1 - to deregister land within the curtilage of a building wrongly
registered as common land at Crendell, Alderholt, with the basis for the
application being explained by officers and what it entailed. The application
was accompanied by supporting documentary evidence.
With the aid of a visual presentation,
officers explained what the reasoning for the recommendation was and what the
provisions of the application were. Photographs and plans were shown
illustrating this, showing the application area from various directions and at
various points; the accommodation on the site and its characteristics and
setting within the landscape in that part of Alderholt.
Officers explained
the history to the application, of the site and what process had taken place to
get to where the application now was, in that the application had been made in
January 2018, with the common being provisionally registered in September 1968
under the provisions of the Commons Registration Act 1965. The application
being made asserted that the land - outlined in red on plans - was wrongly
registered, as it was within the curtilage of a building at that time and
remained so at the time of the application.
The common land
unit formed part of the Cranborne Estate and consisted of a number of small
parcels of land in the area known as “Wastelands”, with the site being
originally occupied by a bungalow, for many years, which had recently been
demolished and replaced with a house.
Officers explained
that there were four requirements which needed to be met for the application to
succeed. In assessing the available evidence thoroughly, officers had concluded
that each of those tests had been fulfilled in that :-
· firstly,
the land was provisionally registered within the required timescale - in having
to be provisionally registered as
common land under section 4 of the Commons Registration Act 1965
· secondly,
at the date of the provisional
registration, the land was covered by a building or was within the curtilage of
a building. This was evidenced by a conveyancing document relating to the
application land dated 1957 - which
included a plan which showed a building on the site - and also a mortgage deed
from 1957, relating to that sale of the land which referred to a bungalow under
construction at the time, this being eleven years prior to provisional
registration
· thirdly, the
registration had become final, which it did in January 1981
· and finally,
since the date of the provisional registration, the land had at all times been,
and still was, covered by a building or within the curtilage of a building.
Accordingly, what was being claimed was
credible and acceptable - and this formed the basis of the reasoning of the
officer’s recommendation, with Members now being asked whether they considered
the application satisfied
the statutory
requirements to deregister land as Common Land.
Following formal
consultation - whilst the Cranborne Estate had no objection to make - an
objection had been received to the application on the grounds that there was no
evidence to show a building on the application land as evidenced in two
Ordnance Survey maps, dated 1963 and 1994 respectively. Concerns were also
raised that as the largest building on the site had been recently demolished
and replaced by a new building, the application was invalid in meeting the
requirement that the land “…has at all times been, and still is, covered by a
building…”
Moreover, a second
objection - received after the end
of the consultation period - raised concern over insufficient evidence that the
bungalow was actually constructed before the date of provisional registration
and that the legal requirements should be applied at the date of determination,
not the date of the application.
The objections
related to the issue of whether or not the application met the legal tests for
deregistration. In applying those tests to the objections being made, the following
judgements had been made by officers, in that:-
·
the fact that the
building did not show on OS maps during the relevant period did not mean that
it did not exist, merely that it was a feature that was not shown, for reasons
of scale.
·
Defra guidance indicated
that the relevant date for consideration referred to the date the application
was made. The bungalow was demolished in 2018 after the application was made.
Therefore, it was considered that this requirement was met. If, however,
consideration was to be given to the relevant date for consideration being the
date of determination, and not the date of the application, officers considered
that the length of time that there was no building present on the land was “de
minimis”, in terms of this test.
The Committee were then provided with the
opportunity to ask questions of the officer’s presentation and about what they
had heard and officers provided clarification in respect of the points raised,
as necessary.
The local Ward
member for Cranborne and Alderholt was satisfied with what was being
recommended on the basis of the evidence submitted by the applicant.
Having had the opportunity to discuss the
merits of the application, having
understood what this entailed and the
reasoning for it being made; having taken into account the officer’s report,
what they had heard at the meeting from the case officer, and the evidence
presented, the Committee agreed that this clearly fulfilled the requirements
necessary to deregister the land and
demonstrated that application CLD 2018/1 should be accepted and, on
being put to the vote, it was
Resolved
1)That application CLD 2018/1 to deregister
land within the curtilage of a
building wrongly registered as common land
at Crendell, Alderholt be
accepted; and
2)That the Register of Common Land be
updated accordingly as shown on Drawing 19/19.
Reasons for decisions
1)The proposed deregistration met the legal
criteria set out in the Commons
Act 2006.
2)The evidence presented to the Council
demonstrated that application CLD
2018/1 should be accepted and the relevant
land deregistered as Common
Land.
Supporting documents: