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We are sad to report that our long-standing member Tony Drake has died aged 89. Tony was a walker and mountaineer; for decades he campaigned for public paths, especially in his home county of Gloucestershire and in Wales.

Tony was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the only child of Leslie and Gladys Drake. He inherited the family’s department store in the 1970s but soon sold it to spend more time outdoors, working on paths or walking in Wales or the Alps.

From 1949, when the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act was passed, he helped to record public paths for the new definitive maps, securing many routes for posterity. He was the Ramblers’ footpath secretary for Gloucestershire for decades, and served on the association’s national executive committee for 28 years. He was a member of the Open Spaces Society’s Hambutts Field management committee for our land at Painswick on the Cotswold escarpment, from 1983 to 1998.

Tony was a pioneer of the Cotswold Way, from Chipping Campden to Bath, and he invented the Cambrian Way, a magnificent route which winds its way for 275 miles from Cardiff to Conwy, taking in the highest and wildest parts of Wales—sadly it has never been designated an official national trail. He was a long-serving member of the Youth Hostels Association Welsh regional council and devised and waymarked many routes between hostels. He was an expert on the design of stiles and gates. He achieved a great deal for walkers, riders and cyclists, and his knowledge of path law and practice was extensive.

Eugene Suggett has written a splendid obituary for the Guardian.

Tony Drake

Next week is a further milestone in the campaign to save Harefield’s Medi Parc site as a green space for local people. On Tuesday (20 March) the public inquiry opens into the application by the Harefield Tenants’ and Residents’ Association to register the land as a village green. Harefield is a village on the western outskirts of London.

The association, with backing from the Open Spaces Society, applied to register the 25-acres of grass and scrub in 2010, to secure the rights of local people to enjoy the land for informal recreation. The application was based on evidence of use, by local people, for 20 years without permission or being stopped. The use includes walking, jogging, bird-watching, picking blackberries, picnicking, dog-walking, playing with children, scouts and much else.

In 2010 landowner Comer Homes moved in and fenced and cleared the land, pushing out many species of animals and plants, in anticipation of building flats there. The residents applied to Hillingdon Council for village green status, Comer Homes objected and the council called a public inquiry so that an inspector could investigate the evidence for a green and make a recommendation to the council. If the land is registered as a green it is protected from development.

Says Tina Wane of the Harefield Tenants’ and Residents’ Association: ‘It has taken two years from the initial application by the association to get to a public inquiry.

‘The Medi Parc land, which we are hoping to register as a green, is in the green belt and is next to ancient woodland which is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Local people have used the land for recreation for well over 20 years, until the developers fenced off the site in 2010. The land was recommended as a grade 1 Site of Interest for Nature Conservation by the Greater London Authority in 2003, but unfortunately this was not adopted by Hillingdon Council.

‘However, there is no doubt that it is a very special site, a green jewel in the heart of our village.

‘We are up against stiff opposition in our fight to protect this land for future use by the Harefield people. We are to face an expert legal team on the other side—it’s a real David and Goliath situation,’ says Tina.

Adds Nicola Hodgson, our case officer: ‘The residents have a good case for registering the land as a green and we wish them every success. They set a fine example in their dogged determination to protect their green space for the community’s use and enjoyment for ever more.’

We have criticised Waltham Forest Council for failing to follow the correct legal procedures on public rights of way and for severe procrastination. The council has delayed adding a public highway to its official map of public paths (the definitive map), for more than five years.

In 2007 local people submitted evidence that the footpath between Woodstock Road and Hale End, Walthamstow (E17), should be added to the map, since they had used it for at least 20 years without being stopped or asking permission—the criteria for claiming a path. The council has a duty to investigate such applications and, if the evidence is sound, to make an official order to add the path to the map.

However, the council failed to act and the residents appealed to the Secretary of State for Environment who directed the council to make the order to add the path. After many months, the council made the order but failed to show the full width of the highway. There were other errors in the order and now the council must remake it, with more delay.

Says Dennis Tilley, a member of our society who has backed local people in their claim: ‘We despair of the council ever getting it right. It seems not to understand that it has a duty to process this claim for the public highway so that it can be recorded and protected. Local people want to be able to continue to use the path to its full width.

Adds our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook: ‘It is sad that the council appears not to know what it is doing, and that it has made so many errors resulting in inordinate delays. We shall continue to press for the path to be added to the map and for its full width to be recorded as a public highway for all to enjoy.’

We are delighted that the Court of Appeal today overturned a High Court judgment, so that Clayton Fields at Birkby, Huddersfield, will now be registered as a village green.

The 6.5 acres of sloping, partly-wooded, green space was first registered as a green in 1997, under the Commons Registration Act 1965.  The registration was overturned in the High Court on a legal point that the people who used the land did not come from a locality⁽¹⁾.

The society has supported the Clayton Fields Action Group in its campaign to register the land, and provided funding to assist it.

Says Nicola Hodgson, our case officer: ‘It is cheering that the High Court decision has been reversed and local people’s rights to use the land for recreation has been reinstated.’

Adds Mike Hardy, secretary of the Clayton Fields Action Group: ‘We are absolutely delighted with this judgment which will retain this enormously valuable local resource for future generations.

‘Local people enjoy it for a wide range of informal recreational activities, including sledging and events such as barbecues and firework displays.  It is rich in wildlife and the bottom part is fairly heavily wooded.  The boundary has a significant number of large, mature native trees, popular with children who have built tree-houses and erected rope-swings in them.

‘A large new development is nearing completion close to the bottom of the field and it is wonderful to know that the children who move there will now have a high-quality local space for recreation,’ says Mike.

The owner of the land, Paddico (267) Ltd, may apply to appeal against this decision in the Supreme Court.

We are disappointed that the Court of Appeal today upheld a decision of the High Court (23 November 2010) on Markham and Little Francis village green at Weymouth in Dorset. Read the judgment here.

The judges determined that the land was wrongly registered as a green.  It will be removed from the register, leaving it vulnerable to development, and local people will lose their right to use it for lawful sports and pastimes.

The 42-acre site was registered by Dorset County Council as a village green in 2001 under the Commons Registration Act 1965.  In 2004 the land was purchased by prospective developers, Betterment Properties Ltd.  Four years after the council registered the land as a green, Betterment applied to the High Court to have it struck from the register, challenging Dorset County Council’s decision.⁽¹⁾

There are two main issues, whether use of the land by local people had been as of right, ie without being stopped or given permission, using force or being secretive, and whether the delay in applying for judicial review was against rules of natural justice.⁽²⁾

The Society for the Protection of Markham and Little Francis, a member of the Open Spaces Society which has contributed to the fighting fund, is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Says Nicola Hodgson, our case officer: ‘We are dismayed at this outcome for Markham and Little Francis green, and for the local community who have for many years enjoyed this green lung on the edge of the town.  If left unchallenged, this case poses a threat to the many greens which were registered under the Commons Registration Act 1965.’

We are sad to report that our vice-president Anne Wilks has died aged 93.

Anne lived for most of her life in Kent and was a tireless campaigner for commons, greens and public paths. She moved to Kent in 1924 and lived in Seasalter, Whitstable and finally Gravesend.

Anne claimed countless paths for the official map, and a multitude of commons and village greens, securing them for public access and enjoyment. The people of Kent owe Anne a huge debt of gratitude for the land and paths which she recorded and saved—Duncan Down and a string of village greens along the Kent coast, to name a few.

Her friend and fellow-campaigner for the last 60 years, Pat Wilson, says:

‘By her belief in the power of the written word, and in the power of her individual principles backed by evidence which she meticulously checked and argued, she was a rock.

Photo: Kent Messenger Group

‘In the post-war era, obstructions on paths abounded, with very few signs, and crops seldom removed. Anne and I rapidly became involved in local public inquiries, magistrates’ court hearings and appeals.

‘And when it came to claiming commons and greens under the Commons Registration Act 1965 before the 1970 deadline, Anne offered for some of us to submit our findings through her so that she would “swear” them before a Justice of the Peace. Anne did not drive but sometimes when she needed to inspect potential land to claim she boarded a double-decker bus and travelled back and forth, seeing over the hedges to check the terrain.

‘To the end, Anne never grumbled or moaned, she was always alert and full of verve and fun. Her spirit was indomitable.’

With her husband Hector, she was a founder member of the Kent Wildlife Trust in 1958. In 1999 she received an award from the Lord Mayor of Canterbury for her work on public rights of way and for the community.

Anne has asked that, instead of flowers, donations can be made to the Open Spaces Society, the Ramblers or the British Heart Foundation.

Please complete and return the form below if you would like us to be able to claim Gift Aid on your donation.

Gift Aid Declaration Form

We have objected to a planning application on Horsebridge Common, Ashurst, near Steyning in West Sussex.

The application is to convert garages into a cookery-school and tea-room, but the building is on registered common land, which means it is unlawful. Works on common land need the consent of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006, as well as any planning consent.

The society objects to this abuse of common land, and to the traffic which will be generated on the driveway across the common, destroying people’s quiet enjoyment of the land. The public has a right to walk on all commons.

We are dismayed that Horsham District Council gave consent for a building on the common here more than ten years ago—a double garage and store room. The applicants must know that this building, which they now wish to develop, is on common land, but they have failed to mention this in their application. Yet this will lead to intensification of use and suburbanisation of the common. Part of the common will be used as a car-park.

The council is now well aware that this is common land, and has received objections from a grazier and an adjoining landowner. We trust it will reject this application.

We have condemned the Country Land and Business Association’s (CLA) plans for public paths as ‘an attack on our historic path heritage’. We were responding to the CLA’s report The Right Way Forward published today.

Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘The CLA’s talk about “modernising” the access system is a lightly-veiled promotion of their own selfish interests.

‘The CLA wants landowners to have powers to move ancient highways when it suits them, away from farmyards, gardens or businesses. There is no mention that paths were there long before these modern activities. It’s the activity which should accommodate the path, not the other way round.

‘Our paths have existed since time immemorial. Yet too many are abused by cropping, ploughing and obstruction, all too often by landowners and their tenants. The CLA is big on what the local councils and path users should do—signposting, waymarking, good behaviour, etc. It doesn’t mention landowners’ bad behaviour in blocking paths, planting crops on them, and intimidating users with big gates and CCTV cameras.

‘The CLA advocates permissive rather than legal paths but these flexi-paths are not in the public interest. People need to be certain of where they can go; in other words, the path must be a public highway. Then they know it can’t be stopped up or moved without due process, and that the highway authority has a duty to maintain it. Permissive paths can come and go with no protection. They may suit landowners but not the users.

‘The CLA wants a fixed width for the myriad of paths with no defined width—but the CLA’s proposed widths are mean. Users need the space to pass each other comfortably and not be squeezed up against barbed-wire fence or sprouting hedge.

‘The CLA reneges on an agreement it reached with other interests only two years ago. It calls for an immediate halt to claims for ancient paths, revoking the age-old rule “Once a highway always a highway”. Yet it signed an agreement with users and local authorities [Stepping Forward] which called on government to introduce measures to simplify and speed up the process for claiming paths. Ministers are still considering these, and must implement the proposals before there can be any halt to the opportunity for the public to claim ancient routes for the map.

‘The CLA uses weasel words like “simplifying” and “modernising” the system. But most of their proposals cut the protection which the system provides to the users.

‘What we need is for landowners to respect public paths, and acknowledge that the paths were there first, and for government and local authorities to recognise the immense public, health and economic benefits of the path network and to invest in it, in the interests of all,’ says Kate.

We have objected to the proposed diversion of Beadnell footpath 31, which leads from Harbour Road, Beadnell, on the Northumberland coast, to Haven Beach.

The plan has been published by Northumberland County Council, the highway authority, and objections must be made by 15 March. The proposal is to move the path onto a route to the south.

The proposed change, although fairly minor on the map, is of great significance. The existing route is a wide open track, well surfaced and inviting. The proposed new route is narrow, and fenced in with a difficult, sandy surface.

Says Peter Gomersall, a local member of the society: ‘The path is used by a wide range of people carrying all sorts of items for a day on the beach. People have wheelchairs, buggies and prams, and carry canoes, boats, diving gear and picnics. They need the firm, wide path which exists at present. The proposed new route is completely unsuitable for such use.

Furthermore, there are fascinating bark pots close to the new route. These are grade 2-listed survivals of the old fishing industry and are vulnerable to erosion from the new route. They must not be put at risk.

‘So there are strong arguments for keeping the path on its existing route and not mucking about with it’, says Peter.

We have objected to two applications to Wycombe District Council which affect registered common land at 25 Willow Avenue, Booker, near High Wycombe in Bucks.

The applications are for retrospective consent for a two-metre high fence and a certificate of lawfulness for use of land as a garden. The society has objected because the ‘garden’ is registered common land, and it is unlawful to erect a fence or other work on a common without the consent of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006.

We believe that both consents should be refused and the council should require the applicants to remove the unlawful fence and restore the land for public use and enjoyment.

It would set a damaging precedent if this enclosure of common land was to remain unchallenged.