The Growth and Infrastructure Bill will change the law on registering new village greens

Campaigners are urging Peers to throw out a Government attempt to rush in measures that could stymie new village greens.

The Open Spaces Society described as small-minded and spiteful a proposal in a Parliamentary bill to deny a two-month grace period for new applications for greens that have been earmarked for development.

A last-minute amendment to the Growth and Infrastructure Bill, which will be debated by the House of Lords tomorrow, will mean the law will take effect immediately it is passed, giving no time for green applications to proceed.

General secretary Kate Ashbrook said: “This is a small-minded antithesis of the so-called Big Society.

“It is grossly unfair to introduce such a significant change at this late stage, when nothing has occurred to justify it.

“Communities have assumed that they have two months after royal assent in which to submit their applications to register land as greens. Now they may not have time to do this.

“There has been neither consultation nor discussion about this early commencement of the greens measures.

“The Government has a national stakeholder group to advise it on greens but it has not bothered to consult the group about the change. The Government has deliberately left this change to the last minute in order to appease its friends the developers.”