Village green

The term is used more broadly to encompass woodland, moorland, sports grounds, buildings, roads and urban parks.

Individual greens may have been created for various reasons, including protecting livestock from wild animals or human raiders during the night, or providing a space for market trading.

The Błonia Park, originally established in the Middle Ages, is an example of a large village green in Kraków, Poland.

[8] On 11 December 2019, a Supreme Court decision put the future of some village greens at risk in England and Wales.

(Granted, the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 specified that land designated for planning applications could not be registered as a village green, but that did not apply in the Moorside Fields case.)

The local authority challenged the registration, wanting to retain control of the lands for future expansion of the nearby Moorside Primary School's playing fields.

In the appeal decision, cited as R (on the application of Lancashire County Council) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Respondent) the court overturned the previous judgments.

At the same time, the Supreme Court also ruled against the registration of lands in a separate case in Surrey involving the 2.9 hectare Leach Grove Wood at Leatherhead, owned by the National Health Service.

[10][11] After publication of the decision in the Moorside Fields case, Lancashire County Council told the news media that the court had "protect[ed] this land for future generations".

[12] In effect, the Supreme Court decision left lands owned by public authorities by their statutory powers open to development for any purpose that they deem to be appropriate.

[13] This could have far-reaching ramifications in England and Wales, according to the Open Spaces Society, a national conservation group that was founded in 1865.

A representative made this comment to The Guardian: "This is a deeply worrying decision as it puts at risk countless publicly owned green spaces which local people have long enjoyed, but which, unknown to them, are held for purposes which are incompatible with recreational use".