Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies or substitutes.

Mr Cole declared that he was the KCC representative on the Kent Countryside Access Forum.

Mr Ian McLean and Mr Jamshid Mavaddat were in attendance for this item.

1.    The Public Rights of Way and Commons Registration Officer introduced the report and said that the Council had received an application to register an area of land known as Two Fields at Westbere as a new Town or Village Green from the Two Fields Action Group.  The application had been made under Section 15 of the Commons Act 2006 which enabled any person to apply to a Commons Registration Authority to register land as a village green where it could be shown that a significant number of inhabitants had indulged as of right in lawful sports and pastimes on the land for a period of at least 20 years.

2.    The Public Rights of Way and Commons Registration Officer explained that the site was registered to four different landowners, including Mr S. Saadat. Every effort had been made by a variety of means to contact Mr Saadat, but a response had not been received.

3.    The Public Rights of Way and Commons Registration Officer set out the objections that had been received, as set out in the report, including objections related to development related trigger events that are set out in Schedule 1A of the Commons Act 2006 and the High Court determined that the Council should proceed with the application.

4.    The application was considered at a Regulation Committee Member Panel meeting on 2 December 2021 where Members accepted the officer recommendation that the matter should be referred to a Public Inquiry. The Public Inquiry took place during June 2023 where an Inspector was appointed by the Council to hear evidence from both sides in relation to the application. The Inspector had prepared a report setting out his findings and recommendation to the Council and this had been circulated to the Landowners and Applicant for their comments. A copy was also circulated to Panel Members for their consideration prior to the meeting.

5.    The Public Rights of Way and Commons Registration Officer explained, as set out in the report, the legal tests that must be considered in determining the application, and the outcome of each test based on evidence received and collated, including the Inspector’s opinion on each test.  She said for the application to be granted every test had to be met in full and if one test failed, the application falls to be rejected.

6.    The Public Rights of Way and Commons Registration Officer highlighted a typographical error in paragraph 20 of the report which should read “second objector’s case” and not “first objector’s case”.

7.    The Public Rights of Way and Commons Registration Officer explained that a separate application had been made, under different legislation to that of the application, in respect of the land, by Westbere Parish Council to record a number of Public Rights of Way (PROW) across the application site.

8.    The Public Rights of Way and Commons Registration Officer said the Inspector had concluded, for the reasons set  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

There were no urgent items.