From A to B

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In 2010, the Charity Commission concluded that the Steep allotments including the Church Road allotments were held (under an award dated September 1866 of the Inclosure Commissioners) as a charitable trust by the Parish Council as charity trustees; upon this assumption:

In, say 1998, the state of affairs (A) was:

  1.  The Allotments existed as they had since 1866 (without allotments, the object of the trust of 1866 could not be carried out);
  2. They were protected by the fact that they were trust assets (the Parish Council held them as trustees for and on behalf of the residents of Steep; the Parish Council did not own them);
  3. The beneficiaries of the trust, the inhabitants of the Parish of Steep, were protected from anyone who might claim that they owned the land;
  4. There was no power to sell any of the trust assets under the 1866 trust;
  5. They were outside the development envelope and were therefore protected from development by virtue of provisions of planning law; and
  6. Accordingly; there was no presumption of development.

In May 2010, the Parish Council held a Referendum supervised and scrutinised by the independent Electoral Reform Services Ltd: the result of the ballot was a decision “No to development then proposed” and the Allotments continued in existence.  The document which formally notified the Parish Council of the result of the Referendum is available here.  After the result of the Referendum had been publicly announced, the Petersfield Post reported the then immediate Past Chairman as saying:  “They (residents) wanted allotments …It was a very, very good turnout and most of the Parish had their say”. 

In 2021, we find ourselves in this position (B):

  1. The Allotments are at severe risk of being eliminated by sale: they are still held as a trust asset but the trustees have obtained from the Charity Commission the power to sell the allotments. 
  2. The development envelope was changed to include the Allotments without the inhabitants of Steep being asked or consulted; so
  3. There is now a presumption of development;

Did you know all or any of this?  Do you remember being told that the result of the Referendum (by which the allotments continued with the protection set out as Position A above) would be overturned?

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