Crombie Wilkinson
for the Hagg Lane Green Conservation Society and Elmhirst Parker for Hemingbrough Parish Council.
Yorkshire Blockheads battle over Preposterous Proposition
The Hagg Lane Green Conservation Society, a small group of
ageing, private individuals, wants either to prevent the Parish Council, which
has occupied land at Hagg Lane since before the 1939/1945 War, taking possession
of the registered village green under the laws of Adverse Possession so it can
be protected for residents in perpetuity (as one of their Steering Group member
put it in the vernacular outside a Parish Council meeting early in 2017) or to
ensure the Group’s unfettered rights of access and scope to manage that village
green, as it alone sees fit, without payment or permission (as the Society’s Secretary
may describe their “Caution against first registration” dated 25 October 2016),
while the astute and experienced Parish Councillor Roland Chilvers advocates in
Council a licence for a qualified party such as the Conservation Society to
develop the green under a degree of Parish Council control that could, for
example, have stopped the recent spreading of conifer clippings from a
commercial operation on the green by a member of the Society when conifer trees
are not native to the green and surrounding land, and could have more rapidly
stopped the pollution of the green and ponds by rats gorging on waste food on
land adjacent to the green, and a degree of public scrutiny.
Public scrutiny seems to be essential for projects where substantial
amounts of money are involved.
Such
scrutiny has unearthed grant application forms claiming “Hagg Lane Green Conservation Project. The land is owned by the Parish Council”, “What
is your ownership of the property … Freehold,
or other type of outright ownership.” and “Who owns the land that you plan to work on? Hemingbrough Parish Council”!!!
I imagine Councillor Chilvers and Denis Hails from the Society, both reasonable people, could agree a compromise without the need for expensive solicitors as long as they keep their volatile, smart-mouthed members obsessed with vendettas and villages
feuds out of the main talks.
The Conservation Society filed a “Caution against first registration”
with the land Registry on 25th October 2016 and did not send a copy
to the Parish Council “because we didn’t
have to!”
The “Caution”, available
to the public from the Land Registry for £7.00, has been in the village since
before Christmas, according to the Grapevine, and probably was the reason the Parish Council went into a
sudden, private session in December to stop the press and public knowing what was
happening.
