Judge lifts designation of allotments as asset of community value

A group campaigning to retain allotments has lost its case at the First Tier Tribunal over the site remaining as an asset of community value.

Judge Peter Lane said Ribble Valley Borough Council and Barrow Parish Council could not reasonably expect the allotments to remain listed as an asset of community value when they were about to be closed off for five years.

Land used by the Barrow Allotment Holders' Association was listed as being of community value but its owner New Barrow intended to allow housebuilder Redrow to use it as a depot and access route for a development on a nearby site.

Ribble Valley had listed the site under section 88(1) of the Localism Act 2011, which requires that “it is realistic to think that there can continue to be non-ancillary use of the building or other land which will further (whether or not in the same way) the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community”.

New Barrow appealed against the designation having awarded Redrow a licence to occupy the land.

It argued that health and safety requirements would make it impossible to allow the allotments to continue with safe access for a period likely to last five years.

The judgment noted that where land is listed as being of community value, it was “to be removed from the list with effect from the end of the period of five years beginning with the date of that entry”.

Judge Lane said: “It follows from this that it is difficult to see how section 88(1)(b) could be successfully invoked where, on the facts of a case, an existing use will cease for a period of five years, even if it is very likely that the use would then resume after that period.

“The effect of the legislation is to impose a finite restriction, in terms of the moratorium period, upon an owner's ability to dispose of land that is serving a relevant community purpose.”

Mark Smulian