Village greens

Common land

Common land is land, usually in private ownership, over which certain people have certain rights and on which certain restrictions have been placed. There is no common land registered in the Borough.

Town and Village Greens

Land can be registered as a green if it has been used by local people for recreation ‘as of right’ (without permission, force or secrecy) for at least 20 years. For an application to succeed the applicant must establish that the land in question comes entirely within the Commons Act 2006 definition:

• a significant number of the inhabitants of any locality, or of any neighbourhood within a locality, have indulged as of right in lawful sports and pastimes on the land for a period of at least 20 years
• they continue to do so at the time of the application in accordance with section 15(2) or, where they have ceased to do so, the application must be made within the time specified in section 15(3) or 15(4)

Applying to register land as Town or Village Green

• Guidance as to how to apply for land to be registered as town or village green [pdf document, external link]
• Guidance as to how to voluntarily dedicate as town or village green land which you own [pdf document, external link]
• Registration forms [pdf document, external link]

Applications need to be submitted to:

The Registrar of Common Land and Village Greens, Local Land Charges Section, Darlington Borough Council, Town Hall, Darlington DL1 5QT.

Please note: Section 15C of the 2006 Act excludes the right to make an application to register land under section 15(1) where a ‘trigger event’ has occurred in relation to that land. The right to apply will remain excluded until a corresponding ‘terminating event’ occurs in relation to that land.

The ‘trigger event’ and ‘terminating event’ relate to the development of land within the planning system and are set out in Schedule 1A to the 2006 Act [external link].