Some two years on from the Localism Act 2011 and it is interesting to note that both the existence of the power to register assets of community value, and the interest in so doing is starting to pick up across the country.

Under the Act local authorities are required to maintain a list of ‘community assets' which can be ‘nominated' by "community groups. The Act seeks to ensure that vital local amenities like the local village shop, or pub that might be threatened with closure could be saved by a community group coming to the rescue and persuading the local authority to register it as a community asset.

The Act was intended to protect those community assets where local life would not be the same without them if they were closed or sold into private use.

In general terms provided that the land or amenity furthers the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community or has done recently then it is capable of being registered.

Once the asset is listed, (it is also registerable as a local land charge) the owner is precluded from disposing of the community asset without given the community group time to come up with a bid for it. Community groups often need more time to organise a bid and raise money and therefore the Act provides for a six-month full moratorium on any disposal by the owner.

Following this period the owner only has twelve month protected period when no further moratorium on the sale will apply. (The Act actually specifies 18 months but that period runs concurrently from the same day as the owner notifies the local authority of its intention to sell which then may trigger the 6 months moratorium).

Some interesting community assets have been registered including Manchester United's ground at Old Trafford, and here in my own authority in Lambeth we are considering an application by skateboarders using an iconic Undercroft on the Southbank of the Thames.

All this is certainly great news for lawyers given legal challenges can arise at a number of stages with statutory appeals and Judicial reviews all being available.

In a recent case involving Bournemouth Borough Council, the Council successfully resisted a judicial review application when they refused to register an asset of community value on the grounds that it had not been used for such community purposes in the recent past.

What is the ‘recent past' is not a fixed concept with the court holding that the most relevant factor must be the length of the period, namely ‘recent' means lately or that has just happened, belonging to a past period of time comparatively close to the present, not long past. 

In Bournemouth's case five years was too long a gap, two would have been ok.

It would appear that localism is alive and kicking in relation to this particular aspect of the Act.

Mark Hynes, President for Lawyers in Local Government  is director of governance, assurance & democracy at Lambeth LBC