A team of Land Registry experts was on hand at the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show on Wednesday, 15 August to tell visitors about the benefits of voluntary land registration.

A new Land Registry trailer was set up at the show at Motcombe and was visited by more than 100 people.

Land Registry staff discussed how voluntary land registration can offer landowners more certainty and security about their property, and they gave guidance about how the process works.

The voluntary registration initiative is part of a drive by Land Registry, the government agency responsible for registering land ownership in England and Wales to seek people who own agricultural land and help them to identify and register what they own.

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Just 55% of Dorset has been registered and there are 116,000 hectares that currently remain unregistered across the County. Figures for Somerset and Wiltshire are broadly similar at 52%.

Andy Woodgate, Register Development Manager at Land Registry’s Weymouth Office, said: “We know that farmers and landowners with large land holdings live busy lives. Recognising this our aim is to make the voluntary registration of ownership as straightforward as possible.

“Land Registry is keen that farmers and other landowners have the best possible guarantee of their land ownership. We have a straightforward and cost-effective system for checking and registering who owns what.

“We hope that by attending events such as the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show we will have direct contact with farmers, or their representatives such as land agents and solicitors who may need more information about the initiative.

He concluded: “The response we had at Gillingham and Shaftesbury was very promising. We hope we will be able to repeat this at other shows later in the year.”

(JM/SP)