The Battle for Broxhead Common
BW47 path from the wood
The Case for Hampshire County Council – PART 76
- 15th March 1975 is the date of a letter from one of the commoners saying how delighted he is at the result of the Chief Commons Commissioner’s decision “which confirms the ancient rights” and appreciation for John Ellis’s “considerable efforts as Chairman.” However, he goes on to say he “is distressed and concerned that the Commissioner has apparently not advised that the very substantial legal costs of the Association should be recoverable…Only one landowner has opposed and obstructed the ancient commoners rights and had it not been for this stand by this landowner our legal costs might well have been minimal.”
1975 March 15th Nicholson to Ellis_000047 - 25th June 1975 , the Broxhead Commoners Association distributes news of Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls who says that if Parliament did not legislate soon he would be tempted to infer that all land registered as ‘common land’ would be open to the public at large.
This made it even more important to save Broxhead not just for commoners but for public access.
1975 June, John Ellis Newsflash_000025 - 22nd July 1975. The High Court of Justice gives notice that Mr Whitfield has launched an appeal against the Chief Commons Commissioner’s carefully considered decision. Naturally if it had not been registered then there would have been nothing to appeal against, but in 2020 at the High Court, HCC would falsely state that Broxhead Common had only ever been preliminarily registered!! This false information prevented me from getting a Judicial Review.
1975 Appeal by AGP Whitfield July 197504072017_0001 (1) - Mr Whitfield’s appeal states the Chief Commons Commissioner
• Erred in law in confirming the registration of rights of common so far as they effected the land owned by him.
• The decision was unreasonable as there was no evidence to support it.
• That “in the premises the appellant’s ‘said land’ is not subject to rights of common and is wrongly included in the register of common land.”
He is seeking a Court Order that the register of common land be amended accordingly by deleting the said land and by amending the rights of common as registered to exclude any reference to the said land.
BW47 near Frensham Lane
Next time: This is going to be expensive but help is at hand.