Landownership Enquiries

[Alex]

Basically I'm having trouble trying to findout who to contact when it comes to land ownership, even when I do,I encounter more trouble trying to convince landowners to share their ownership extent details, understandably they are reluctant to provide details.

I had briefly explained how I came across this small internet community in the introductions sub-forum. Anyways I'll attempt to explain in a little more detail the grounds for creating this register (without use of the land registry service because the local authorities operate under limited resources).

Every Council / local authority in England and Wales, are now legally recognised as 'Lead Local Flood Authorities' (LLFA) following the The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 (Which basically came about due to the lack of preparedness and organisation after the 2007 widespread flooding in the UK).

A part of this new role, comes the legal responsibility to map and register all 'assets', (culverts, drainage systems , flood defences). Land ownerships is not legally required to be registered, however from a flood risk management perspective, the use of land and land in itself, can be considered as an asset in itself (water retention, reduced run-off). Furthermore, the act, through Section 14, empowers the LLFA and Environmental agency to get such information. But it's a touchy subject, and from my point of view, it's not good to act upon the law, unless it's a last resort.

Whilst I don't expect to find any landowners within the County I am working in, here. I do welcome any suggestions or advice you may have.

So far the Forestry Commission have been very willing to provide details of their ownership, whilst I'm also trying to get UPM Tilhill to provide their ownership details too, any other forestry owners you can think of ? (North Wales region - Denbighshire-Conwy)

Thanks

[tracy]

You could post the name of the land and location on here to see if any of our owners own it, and you could post why you want to contact them, maybe they will PM you!

[Alex]

suspicion that the information, once obtained, could be used for other purposes ...general 'bureaucratic interference'.

That's the biggest issue with people sharing what they own, it's awkward to ask, because being a landowner myself, I'd probably have the same feelings about sharing too, furthermore not every landowner keeps a well recorded reference of what they own, deeds and such are probably locked away in some vault, especially if the land is passed through generations. Then with the mention of flood risk, unless they are personally at risk, they question even more the purposes of sharing it.

Tracy,

I'm trying to find all the land within the County, not any particular piece or plot, I'm more focused on the floodzone areas (as defined by the Environment Agency) though in the lower catchment areas.

Both Forestry Commission Wales and UPM Tilhill have provided details so far.

[RichardKing]

Alex.
This needs to be tackled at a much higher level.
I cannot believe that it is an efficient use of your time & every person in a similar position in every county to attempt such a piecemeal data collection.
A waste of resources & taxpayers money.
Talk to your MP.
Get him to raise the issue with the DOE

[Alex]

I'm not sure if other local authorities are doing this , it is a legal requirement to map and register, 'assets' (e.g. culverts / flood defenses) however despite having the power to obtain information from landowners, it is not a legal requirement as I said in my first post. It's basically trying to recreate what the land registry already has, but for flood risk management purposes.

Note, from a financial resource perspective, tax payers should be glad that in this particular case, the local authority isn't going through land registry, which costs significantly more compared to my wages!

Electronically so much is stored, but not landownership details, particularly not private landownership, it makes sense for a local authority having this type of information in my opinion, really makes no sense to me why it's not already to be honest.