Kingswear Parish Council

1 August 2008

Our previous Clerk, Michael Stevens, wrote to you in November 2005 concerning the position regarding registering Lighthouse Beach as a village green.  At that time the appeal over a High Court decision on Trap Grounds, which we hoped would open the way forward, was to go to appeal at the House of Lords.  That was eventually heard and the appeal upheld, but it was so specific to the Trap Grounds case that it was unhelpful to us.

Simultaneously a Commons Bill was progressing through Parliament but was delayed waiting for the outcome of the appeal.  This bill eventually became the Commons Act 2006 which came into force in April 2007.  The Act allows applications to be made if access to the land has been closed within five years of that date.

While Mr Southwick closed access to the beach from the land in late 1999 he did not close access from the river until August 2006.  Our solicitor believes that this gives us a real opportunity to register the right of public access to Lighthouse Beach.

With this in mind we need statements from people who have used the beach for leisure purposes in the years from 2002 to 2006 using access from the river.  It does not matter whether the users had been aware or not that access from the land had been blocked.

Our present objective is to apply to the Devon County Council to register the beach as a village green. Our advice is that they are likely to accept the application but hold a public enquiry to decide upon registration.

The main reason for writing to you is to inform you that the matter of public access is still progressing, if very slowly.  Our present need is to obtain evidence that the beach has been used from the river up to August 2006.  If you have, or know someone who has we would be most grateful to hear from you or them.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Illingworth

Clerk to the Council

68, Winsu Avenue

Paignton  TQ3 1QE

Tel: 01803 392265

Email: kingswearclerk@yahoo.co.uk