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Congratulations to Kent County Council, the access authority, for going to court to restore forbidden land to the public. The council took Mr John Button, owner of the historic Capel Battery on the clifftop at Capel-le-Ferne, near Folkestone, to the magistrates’ court, after he blocked off public access to the site. The land had been mapped as open access land under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, giving the public the right to walk over it.

The landowner fenced off the site with a six-foot-high barrier, preventing people from walking there. After trying, and failing, to negotiate with the landowner, the council took him to court, which ordered that the obstructions must be removed within 60 days.

Kent County Council is the first access authority to go to court to get illegally-blocked access restored. It sets a fine example to other access authorities.

Local OSS member Angela Godfrey says: ‘‘It’s great that, after we’ve waited patiently for nearly two years, something might be happening to restore our access here. But the campaign isn’t over yet and we shall be keeping a close watch to ensure the barricades really do go.’

We are delighted that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced that the first stretch of the England Coastal Path will be open this summer. The first section of route starts at Rufus Castle in Portland and will end at Lulworth Cove, both in Dorset, and covers 32km of coastline along with spreading room away from the path. The Environment Minister, Richard Benyon, has pledged that the route will be open in time for the Olympic sailing.

We are delighted that the first stretch is to be opened soon and look forward not only to the next five stretches* being completed but also to Defra giving the go-ahead for the creation of the path and accompanying access land right round the English coast.

Read more here.

*Cumbria – Whitehaven to Allonby
Hartlepool/Durham/Sunderland – North Bents (Whitburn Bay) to Seaton Carew
Norfolk – Weybourne to Sea Palling
Kent – Ramsgate to Folkestone
Somerset – Minehead to Brean Down near Weston Super Mare

We have joined campaigners fighting to save the magnificent view from Richmond Hill. This view is threatened by a high-rise residential block as part of the redevelopment of Twickenham station. The objectors include the Twickenham Residents’ Action Group, TRAG.

View from Richmond Hill with proposed block superimposed Photo by John Watson and Landmark Architecture

Richmond Council has accepted a proposal from Network Rail and Solum Regeneration for this development.

The society championed the Richmond Hill, Petersham and Ham Act 1902, which aimed to protect the view from Richmond Hill. The society had previously (c1896) helped to defeat an Inclosure Bill which would have led to the destruction of Petersham and Ham Commons.

Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘The Open Spaces Society was instrumental in saving Petersham and Ham Commons for the public and preserving the view from Richmond Hill. Over a century later, we shall fight just as hard to protect this same view from a high-rise development.’

We have written to the Mayor of London and the Secretary of State for Culture to urge them to adopt a much lower alternative, which is popular locally and will preserve this splendid view.

We are dismayed that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has granted Southern Gas Networks permission for a gas installation on Broad Street and Rydes Hill Commons, near Guildford in Surrey.

Southern Gas applied to the environment secretary in 2008 to place a gas installation on the common, replacing an existing one which is in a less contentious location. The Planning Inspectorate, on behalf of the environment secretary, decided in January 2012 that the works would not do any material harm to the relevant interests in the common, ie people having rights there, and the interests of the neighbourhood and the public. The public has the right to walk and ride over the whole area, under section 193 of the Law of Property Act 1925.

Says Bob Milton, the Open Spaces Society’s Guildford representative: ‘We are dismayed that the Planning Inspectorate, using its powers, has ridden roughshod over public rights, to facilitate financial savings for a utility company, without recognising the obstruction of public access to both walkers and riders on this area of common land.’

We have backed our member the Kensington Society and other local societies⁽¹⁾ in calling for the council’s planning guidance to recognise the land surrounding the Natural History Museum as a local green space that is open to the public.

The lawns, photographed by a member of the Kensington Society in early 2011, are in the same state in early 2012 after the whole area had been covered to allow for temporary structures and vehicles.

We sent the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea a strong submission that the council’s Supplementary Planning Document must recognise the East Grounds, and in particular the East Lawn, at the Natural History Museum as local green space.

It is vital that this important and popular land is given the recognition it deserves as green space.  This neighbourhood lacks open space for the enjoyment of local people, office workers and visitors, and the green lungs around the Natural History Museum and the other Kensington museums fulfil a vital function.

Says Michael Bach of the Kensington Society:  ‘The Council’s proposed planning guidelines fail to understand the important role of the East Grounds, and especially the East Lawn, not just as an important part of the setting for the Natural History Museum, but as a vital local green space—the only one open to the public in this densely built-up area.

‘The museum has, over the last six years, increasingly used the East Lawn and East Grounds for “temporary” commercial events, often back to back, so that this green space is not freely open to the public for a very large part of the year, after which the lawns may be damaged and need to recover or even be returfed.  We asked the council to use the guidelines to manage the scale, frequency and, above all, the duration of these temporary events—it has not done so.

‘The museum is now considering paving over this vital local green space.  The loss of this space, by paving it and then using it more intensively, amounts to the effective loss of this publicly-accessible open space,’ says Michael.

1.         The objections to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s proposed Supplementary Planning Document on the Natural History Museum Grounds Design Guidance were coordinated by the Kensington Society on behalf of the Brompton Association, Earl’s Court Society, Knightsbridge Association and Onslow Neighbourhood Association.

We are relieved that a development which threatened the footpath leading to the famous Poohsticks Bridge in Ashdown Forest is to be removed.

Mr and Mrs Ben Van Praagh of Faircote Hall and stud, at Hartfield in East Sussex, had been given retrospective planning permission for a new riding arena which crossed the public footpath leading to the bridge. The consent, which had been opposed by OSS, Sussex Ramblers and other organisations and individuals, included a requirement for the path to be lawfully diverted within two years.

Now the Van Praaghs have put in an application for planning permission for a smaller arena which does not cross the path.

We are pleased that the new planning application is smaller and will ensure the path is kept open on its current, historic, route.

With the Ramblers and others we have said that the path must be kept open and unobstructed to its full width at all times, except for any strictly-temporary closure during construction. We have also specified that there must be appropriate landscaping and screening, the impact on the area of outstanding natural beauty must be minimised, there should be no lighting nor public-address system, and the old arena must be completely removed before the new one is constructed.

This is an attractive part of the country and it should be saved from suburbanisation. And above all, we want to see the popular ‘Poohsticks Path’ used and enjoyed by walkers in its lovely setting.

We welcome the news that the High Court will review Bristol City Council’s decision to register only part of the 42-acre site at Ashton Vale, Bedminster, as a town or village green. The application for judicial review was made by the Save Ashton Vale Environment (SAVE) group.

Bristol City Football Club wants to build a 30,000-seat stadium here.

On 16 July 2011 the council’s Public Rights of Way and Greens Committee agreed to register as a green only 17 of the 42 acres that had been recommended for registration by an independent inspector, Ross Crail.

Ms Crail, who presided over a public inquiry in the summer of 2010 recommended on 26 August 2010 that the whole of the application site should be registered, as the evidence in support of the application satisfied the statutory criteria.

Says our case officer, Nicola Hodgson: ‘The High Court will now consider whether Bristol City Council properly considered all the relevant issues.’

Nigel Moorcroft, chairman of Long Ashton Parish Council which supports the application for judicial review, says: ‘We welcome the judge’s decision that SAVE’s request for a judicial review has merit. Arguments will be presented for Bristol City Council’s decision to be reversed and for the whole of the site to be awarded protected status as a town green.’

If the land is registered as a town or village green it cannot be developed.

Bromley Council plans to sell the unique Italian Garden, an open space on the south side of Queen’s Gardens, so as to build restaurants there.

We are backing our member, the Friends of Bromley Parks and Gardens, in opposing the scheme.

Says our South London representative, Mark Green: ‘If the land is sold and restaurants and cafés built here the land will cease to be open space available for the public to enjoy. The development would be a private, not public, amenity.

‘We consider the development here is contrary to Bromley’s own policy in the Bromley Town Area Action Plan which says that: “New cafés and restaurants will be permitted around the edge of the garden provided that development does not result in the loss of any green space”. While the site is paved rather than green, it is nevertheless public open space, and to interpret the policy as permitting such development here would contradict the overall thrust of local and national planning policy.’

The Italian Garden was added to Queen’s Gardens about 20 years ago to compensate for the loss of another part of Queen’s Gardens in the redevelopment of Bromley town centre. Continues Mark: ‘Allowing the disposal of this site now would be contrary to the spirit and intention of the original land swap’.

‘Furthermore, the site forms part of a conservation area. The proposed development is contrary to the requirements of development in a conservation area, namely that it should preserve or enhance the area.’

We are also objecting to the planning application for development of the site.

We have opposed plans by the Secretary of State for Transport to stop up a 26-metre width of public highway adjacent to 94-102 Bell Street in Henley-on-Thames.

The proposed highway-closure is to enable Chesterton Commercial to construct parking spaces here. We were among the objectors to the plans for car parking on the green space, which South Oxfordshire District Council approved last July.

We don’t consider it necessary to stop up the highway merely to park cars here. We do not anticipate permanent parking on this land and it is wrong to close a public highway, and deny people their right to use it, purely for private gain.

This is a pleasant, leafy corner of Henley, it is a small green space and a crucial element in the attractive townscape. It should not be reduced or despoiled by permanently parked cars.

So we hope the transport secretary will decide not to close this public highway.

We are challenging Stowe School’s golf course plan.

With the Bucks, Milton Keynes and West Middlesex Ramblers, we have objected to the posh public school’s scheme to move its existing north Bucks golf course onto land crossed by public paths, and have submitted our objections to Aylesbury Vale District Council, the planning authority.

The proposed golf course will be slapped down right on top of public paths. There are three bridleways and four footpaths either crossing the site or in its immediate vicinity. The enjoyment and safety of walkers, riders and cyclists will be severely affected.

This is a tranquil and beautiful part of Bucks, where people should be able to exercise their rights peacefully in unspoiled countryside. Indeed, flying golfballs so close to those enjoying public highways may constitute a public nuisance.

We commend the submission from Buckinghamshire County Council’s strategic access officer. As highway authority, the county has a duty to protect the rights of path users and it has urged the district not to grant permission for this golf course in its current form.

Says our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook: ‘Stowe School with its arrogant motto “I stand firm and I stand first” (Persto et Praesto) should rethink its proposals and decide not to stand firm in pursuing this obnoxious application. As a leading public school it should set an example by respecting the rights of the public to enjoy the public paths’.

‘So our message is: Stow it Stowe and withdraw your plans,’ Kate concludes.