1. As you will have seen in Part 48 of this series, I had brought the matter of the missing 80 acres of Broxhead Common to the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve in 2013. My correspondence had been passed to DEFRA who already should have known about it, but it was clear from Lord de Mauley’s reply, that no help would be forthcoming.
   Attorney General & Lord Mauley response re Broxhead

2. So, for the next three years I sought the opinions of various Counsels, and Solicitors, all experts in the laws of common land.

3. It was from those opinions that I was able to put the missing pieces of this strange case together as you will have been able to read.

4. It was also obvious that as this was a very expensive exercise there was no way that I, or I think any other ordinary person could afford to initiate court proceedings. Besides surely it was not for any individual to hold the Registrations Department of Hampshire County Council to account.

5. G. D. Gadsden, the authority on ‘The Law of Commons’ clearly states: ‘Under strictly limited circumstances an authority may be ordered by the court to rectify the register. Section 14 of the C.R.A 1965 provides that- “The High Court may order a register maintained under this Act to be amended if- (a) the registration under this Act of any land or rights of common has become final and the court is satisfied that any person induced by fraud to withdraw an objection, or,
   (b) the register has been amended in pursuance of section 13 of this Act and it appears to the court that no amendment or a different amendment ought to have been made and that the error cannot be corrected in pursuance of regulations made under this Act, and, in either case, the court deems it just to rectify the register.”

6. As there was no help forthcoming from Government I would have to wait until Section 19 (2)(a) CA2006 was rolled out in Hampshire. This would enable a mistake made by the registration authority to be corrected.

Next time: July 2017

All 'TCHCC' Parts so far