The Review has joined forces with local solicitors Debenhams Ottaway to offer our readers the best legal advice.

Below planning lawyer at Debenhams Ottaway Bernadette Hillman answers a reader's question.

Q: My neighbours and I have been using a sports field in our village for many years for recreation, such as walking our dogs and playing cricket. The owner of the field now wants to build enclosed tennis courts in the middle of it and he has been granted planning permission. Can we stop him by registering the field as a village green?

A: Bernadette Hillman, planning lawyer at Debenhams Ottaway, responds: Section 15 of the Commons Act 2006 enables you to apply to register this sports field as a new village green. Whether or not you will succeed will depend on a number of factors such as how long you have used the land, whether the use has been “as of right” and whether or not your use defers to the owner’s use. It is very important to get the application itself right and as watertight as possible. In recent years it has become increasingly popular (and controversial) for local people to seek to protect land from any development by applying to register it as a village green, and for landowners to try to defeat such applications so that they can build on their land. Unfortunately, in the case you describe, even if you are able to succeed with such an application, this may not stop the landowner from building tennis courts on the sports field. Whilst land registered as a village green can be sterilised from development, even if it has planning permission, effectively slowing down the process of, or even defeating, building housing on land, this tactic only works in certain circumstances.

Under the Inclosure Act 1857, s.12, it is a criminal offence for any person to damage any fence on a village green; or wilfully and without lawful authority to put animals or cattle on the green; or wilfully to place any materials upon the green or do anything to interrupt the use or enjoyment of the green as a place for recreation and enjoyment. Under the Commons Act, 1876, s.29, encroachments or enclosures, or the placing of any structures upon village greens are a public nuisance but work carried out with a view to the better enjoyment of the village green, i.e. linked to enhancing its recreational use, is not unlawful. Tennis courts are quite likely to be viewed as enhancing the use and enjoyment of the village green for recreation and enjoyment, and registration of the field as a village green on the basis of the pastimes you describe could well give rise to the right to use the land for other lawful sport and pastimes including tennis.

If you have any questions arising either in relation to the making of the application itself or in how to object to the proposal, you should seek legal advice.