Out-Law News 1 min. read
03 Oct 2013, 2:22 pm
The rules, which were introduced as part of the Growth and Infrastructure Act, will allow landowners to submit a statement, along with a map, to safeguard their land against registrations.
Previously it was possible for anyone to register land under the TVG regime where “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”. A statement made under the new rules brings an end to any such period of recreational use 'as of right' over the land.
The rules also reduce the amount of time an application for TVG registration can be made after the recreational use has stopped from two years to one.
The rules are part of a move by the Government to prevent abuse of the TVG regime to block development. As part of this, the Growth and Infrastructure Act also introduced measures which ended the right to make a TVG application in respect of land which is subject to a planning application or subject to an application for a Development Consent Order and in respect of land identified in local and neighbourhood plans, including draft plans.
"The changes to TVG legislation that have come into force this week will be welcomed by landowners who have all too often seen developments delayed as a result of TVG applications," said Liz Wiseman, planning law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. "The new legislation requires communities to make TVG applications with expediency and landowners will know whether there is a threat of an application being made at a much earlier stage before development proposals are progressed."
"The amendments to TVG legislation seek to rebalance the TVG regime which has previously been heavily weighted against landowners and has seen increasing numbers of applications being made. The amendments will be seen as a positive step by the development industry," Wiseman said.
