PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ITEM WILL BE CONSIDERED AT 2:00 PM

To determine whether land at Argyll Rise, Belmont, Hereford should be registered as a town green.

Ward affected: Belmont

The Principal Lawyer (Corporate) introduced Mr Vivian Chapman Q.C. whose role would be to advise the Committee on the legal issues.

The background to the application was that land at Argyle Rise had been purchased in connection with housing development in 1959 by Hereford City Council and was subsequently laid out as open space as part of the surrounding housing development during the 1970s.  In November 2002 it was included in the transfer of the Council’s housing stock to (HHL).  Local residents have applied for the land to be registered as a Town Green and if this is successful, the land will still be owned by HHL but continue to be used as open space, which would prevent any development of the land.

Mr Christopher Whitmey, an objector to the application requested that Councillor PGH Cutter should take no part in the decision making process at the meeting because he had been a director on HHL until recently.  Miss Ellis QC on behalf of HHL and Mr Chapman QC endorsed this view.  The Principal Lawyer (Corporate) said that Councillor Cutter did not have a personal or prejudicial interest in the matter because he had ceased to be a member of the board of HHL at the end of September. However, he advised that there could be a public perception of ‘pre-determination’ on the part of Cllr Cutter or that there may be a perceptionthat he could be sympathetic towards the stance of HHL, even though he was clear in his own mind that this would not be the case.  The QC’s stressed that the situation in no way reflected on Councillor Cutter personally but that the fact that the Committee was acting in a judicial capacity to decide something on strict legal grounds required that that justice had to be seen to be done.  Anything that could hint at predetermination had to be avoided and that this meant that Cllr Cutter should not participate.  Councillor Cutter confirmed that he had ceased to be a director of HHL but pointed out that the matter had never been discussed at any HHL meetings, he had no prior knowledge about the land and that he wished to hear both sides put their case and to be able to consider all the facts on the day. 

The Committee then withdrew to consider the legal points that had been made.  After some debate, the Committee decided that more time was needed to consider the complex legal arguments and that consideration of the application should be deferred to another day.

RESOLVED THAT: consideration of the application to register land at Argyll Rise Belmont as a Town Green be deferred.