ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1999, the House of Lords gave judgment in R v Oxfordshire CC ex p Sunningwell PC (1999). The case concerned an application by the parish council of Sunningwell, Oxfordshire, to register an open space as a village green under s 13 of the Commons Registration Act 1965. A successful application would prevent the owners of the open space from building two executive homes upon it. At the non-statutory public inquiry, the inspector recommended refusal of the application. The villagers had failed to show that the open space had been used by the villagers ‘as of right’ for ‘lawful sports and pastimes’ for at least 20 years, as required under s 22(1) of the 1965 Act. The local authority followed his recommendation, the Court of Appeal refused the parish council’s application for judicial review of the local authority’s decision and the parish council appealed that decision before the House of Lords.
