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Kent County Council is responsible for holding and maintaining the Register of Common Land and Village Greens. This is a statutory document that provides a record of all the registered pieces of common land and village greens across the county.
Common land is land over which another person is entitled to exercise rights of common or land. Such land was historically considered to be waste of the manor not subject to rights of common. Such land is also normally in private ownership.
Rights of common are legal rights exercisable only by certain individuals (the 'commoners') who live in certain properties or in a certain area. These rights may include:
There is a common misconception that common land is land in public ownership that any person has a right to enter. This is not necessarily so and it was not until the Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000 that the public were granted a legal right of access (on foot only) over registered common land.
There are 174 registered village greens in Kent, covering approximately 500 acres.
Register land as a new village green
Village greens are usually areas of land within defined settlements or geographical areas which are used for sports and pastimes.
Unlike common land, there is no general right of public access over village greens, which are instead reserved for use by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood or locality.
A village green may be privately owned, although in practice many greens are owned by the local parish council. Some greens may also have rights of common over them.
In Kent, there are 111 pieces of common land. Although in other areas, common land is generally open, unfenced and remote (particularly in the upland areas of England and Wales), the majority of registered common land in Kent is waste of the manor, whose main function today has become for recreational purposes.
In many cases, the rights of common have died out, and a common has no commoners; or if the commoners exist they no longer exercise their rights. However, this does not stop the land from being a common.
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Countryside Access Service Invicta House Maidstone Kent ME14 1XX
commons.village greens@kent.gov.uk
0845 345 0210
24 hour helpline: 0300 333 5540 Text Relay: 18001 0300 333 5540
Email: county.hall@kent.gov.uk
© Kent County Council 2013