A Bristol City Council consultation regarding registering areas of open space as a town or village green is seeking comments from local residents and the city’s businesses community.
The authority is seeking to streamline the application process for land to be registered as green to ensure decisions are reached cost-effectively and without undue delay.
Applications for town greens are mostly used to protect open spaces especially in cities.
“Given the surge in interest and applications the council wants to ensure decisions are reached swiftly and effectively,” said James Edwards, a planner at Bristol’s Colliers International.
“With an application taking upwards of a year to determine, the report will help the council create an application system that will assist not just the applicants, but also objectors who oppose any such status.
“The consultation will hopefully clarify the position as regards the village and town green application procedure, so all parties know what can be expected upon the submission of such documents.”
Any piece of land can be registered provided it has been regularly used for either sport or recreation for at least 20 years. Bristol City Council is currently dealing with 14 applications for land to be registered as green.
“The consultation comes at a time when interest is at an all-time high, particularly with the proposed Bristol City Football Club stadium in Ashton and request for town green status on part of the stadium land,” added James.
To submit comments on the proposed changes and to fill in an online questionnaire visit: http://www.citizenspace.com/bristol/consultation-research-intelligence/tvg_application_process.
The consultation is due to close on 13 December.
