Commoners' Corner No.7

First published in the Yateley Society Newsletter in June 1997

Management of Yateley Common

Most members probably do not know how Yateley Common is now managed. There are four owners of the soil currently: Hampshire County Council, the MOD, BCA and the Calthorpe Estates divided into sectors by the A30 and the prewar route of Vigo Lane. The Country Park comprises the part of the common owned by Hampshire County Council, and is managed on a day to day basis by the excellent team of Rangers whom most of us know. However all County activities are ultimately regulated by elected County Councillors meeting in committees and sub-committees. The Yateley Common Management Sub-Committee is slightly different from most in that it is a joint committee between the County Council, who administer it, and Yateley Town Council. One Yateley Commoner is invited as an observer, as is one observer appointed by the Society.

The Committee meets twice a year usually in March and September. The Chairmanship alternates between the County and Town Councils. Society members have always been well represented on this committee, but often representing other bodies. Edward Dawson is a past Chairman, in his capacity as Town Councillor. For many years Michael Holroyd, as the Society‘s Commons & Rights of Way Officer was the Society‘s observer. Daphne Kirkpatrick, a founder member of the Society, was the Commoners' observer. Adrian Collet and Dennis Cleaton are both long-standing Society members, serving on the committee as County Councillors, with Dennis as immediate past Chairman. Currently the Chair has rotated to Yateley Town Council at the September meeting. Cllr Mrs S. Mexon was voted into the Chair. I am the commoners‘ representative and Mike Mann, our Conservation Officer, "observes" for the Society. Other regular County Councillor committee members are Alex Varden (Odiham)and Keki Jessavala (Fleet). Our new County Councillor for Yateley West, Jonathan Glenn, attended his first meeting last month. The Town Council usually appoints 4 members very ably assisted by the Town Clerk, who makes many good points, from his experience of attending the committee for many years, and his knowledge of common law. The County provides the Committee Secretary, and the meeting is attended by a the Principal County Solicitor, Ted Mason (representing the Chief Executive) with many years (even decades) of experience dealing in the laws relating to common land. Last but not least, the meeting is open to the general public and the Press.

The main business of the meeting is to hear the report of the Site Manager, Tony Davies. The meeting last March also had agenda items concerned with Heathlands Policy and Special Protection Areas, Policing of Yateley Common, attended by a senior police officer, and a report on the progress towards forming the trust to administer the northern 138 areas of Blackbushe Airport as public open space. The last meeting had an agenda item concerned with use by Blackbushe Metals of the tracks at the rear of their premises. As the Commoners' representative I was able to raise the concerns of two fellow commoners; firstly the use of tracks over the common in Darby Green by Mr Goss of Forty Winks for a commercial undertaking currently the subject of a "Lawful Development Certificate" -- essentially a device for obtaining planning permission in retrospect by claiming to have run the business for the last ten years.

Secondly I was able to raise the concerns of one of the current owners of one of the Cobbett properties, on Cricket Hill, that the method of apportionment of the common rights on the register held by the County was effectively depriving them of their rights. Thirdly I was able to ask the Site Manager what effect he considered might result from the rebuilding of the Ely as a 39 room hotel -- considering that the Committee had, in previous meetings, heard of problems of raw sewage spilling onto the common from the present arrangements. As well as the health hazards, the sewage enriches the poor acid heathland. As a result the County Planning Officer has already secured "main drainage" as a planning condition. Alan Manley, a member of the public, was able to ask a question concerning the apparent encroachment by the Casa del Cesari onto the common. This elicited a reply from the County Solicitor that the Site Manager would be perfectly within the law to remove newly erected fences that encroached onto the common land.

Much of the practical business of running the common last century was left to the Parish Council, which represented the ordinary people of Yateley, the majority of whom were then commoners. The Parish Council had to liaise with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who were then Lords of the Manor, as "owners of the soil". Commoners sometimes had to attend manorial courts. Now the County Council are "owners of the soil", the Town Council still represents the ordinary people of Yateley, and the commoners' representative attends the Yateley Commons Management Sub-Committee instead of the Manorial Court. However it's not quite business as usual. The County Council is just one of four "owners of the soil." So the commoners, and the general public through the Town Council, only have a say in the management of 573 acres of the total 1,218 acres of registered common land over which the commoners have registered rights -- a little under an half of the total land area.

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