In order to qualify as a Town or Village Green, land has to have been used by the public “as of right” ie. without any form of permission. Much of the land that the Knowle Residents’ Association applied to register had been appropriated by Sidmouth Urban District Council (UDC) as public open space and EDDC have made byelaws to control its use. The Inspector therefore concluded that the public have used this land “by right” ie with the implied permission of EDDC rather than “as of right” and  he rejected the application on this technicality.

The interesting thing to have come out of this is that the Inspector concluded that the rest of the land included in the Town and Green application (which Sidmouth UDC had not appropriated) is also public open space by implication because the byelaws make no distinction between appropriated and unappropriated land.

BEFORE PUBLIC OPEN SPACE CAN BE DISPOSED OF, THE COUNCIL HAVE TO ADVERTISE TWICE AND CONSIDER OBJECTIONS.

(For  Inspector’s full report,  see  http://saveoursidmouth.com/2014/07/08/more-on-the-town-and-village-application-for-knowle/)