News

We have published our ten-point plan for candidates in the general election, and have asked them to sign up to it. To see the names of those who have said they support it, in whole or part, click here.
Action plan
1. A right of appeal, and a requirement to provide suitable alternative land, before public open space [...]

We have welcomed the package of proposals to government from the Stakeholder Working Group on Unrecorded Public Rights of Way.
The group, consisting of representatives of user groups, landowners and local authorities, was brought together by Natural England to find a solution to recording historic paths many of which have become lost.  Its report, Stepping Forward, [...]

A High Court judge has ruled that the 20-acre Warneford Meadow in east Oxford can be registered as a town green.
Judge Waksman QC rejected the application for judicial review from the landowner, the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust.  The trust challenged Oxfordshire County Council’s decision in April 2009 to register the land as [...]

We are delighted at today’s unanimous judgment from the Supreme Court(1) which orders Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council to register Coatham Common(2) as a village green.(3)  The society backed local inhabitants in their bid to register the land.
In order for land to be registered as a green, local people need to show that a significant [...]

A High Court judge has ruled that gates erected across Barcroft Lane by Mr Brian Herrick, owner of the £3.8-million Barcroft Hall at South Petherton in Somerset, are unlawful.  They must now be removed.
On 17 February Mr Justice Cranston handed down his judgment in Herrick v Kidner and Somerset County Council, which is the triumphant [...]

The society is delighted to be working with TruGreen Professional Lawn Care and the Sunday Telegraph in promoting the first-ever ‘Liveliest Village Green’ competition.
All three of us invite you to join our celebration of our wonderful village greens.
If you think your village green is the liveliest in the UK, all you have to do is [...]

‘Developers must be aware of registered common land and public paths on their land before they finalise their plans—or they will have to face big hold-ups.’
This is our response to the Penfold Review of Non-Planning Consents (Department of Business, Innovation and Skills).  The aim of the review is ‘to explore whether the process for obtaining [...]

This year marks the centenary of the Finance Act 1910, a landmark law which has proved valuable in claiming routes as public paths for the definitive (official) map of rights of way in England and Wales.
David Lloyd George’s Finance Act 1910 introduced a tax on land, but landowners could apply for a reduction in tax [...]

‘The proposed review of the process for registering new town and village greens is unnecessary and premature.’
This is our response the recently-announced review by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).(1)
Says our case officer, Nicola Hodgson: ‘The current process for registering land as greens in England only took effect in April 2007.  Since [...]

Councils across England and Wales are today challenged to ‘put themselves on the map’, by the Ramblers and Open Spaces Society, on the 60th Anniversary of royal assent of the Act which the created official maps of public paths (the definitive map).
The visionary 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, passed 60 years [...]