News

We have deplored Barratt Homes’ action last week to bulldoze The Ditches, a much-loved children’s play area, at Merton Green in Caerwent.  The Merton Green Action Group has applied to register the open space as a village green.
Monmouthshire County Council, the greens registration authority, will consider the application next week and there is likely to [...]

South Oxfordshire District Council has refused retrospective planning permission to a close-boarded fence, nearly two metres high, alongside the public footpath at Deanacre, off Deanfield Road in Henley-on-Thames.
Mr Philip Turner, of 2 Deanacre applied to the council to legitimise the fence which was erected unlawfully, without planning permission, last year.  It replaced a lower, post-and-rail [...]

We have praised Norfolk County Council for taking enforcement action on public paths in the county.  Last year the council served a notice on the landowner who had illegally blocked the public footpath which runs alongside Little Hautbois Hall, the £1.8-million Tudor mansion in the parish of Buxton with Lammas.  The landowner gave in and [...]

We are dismayed at the outcome of the long saga to prevent Epworth footpath number 74, 15 miles south-west of Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire, from being moved to an inferior route. 
We had backed local people, including its member Graham Wager of Epworth Turbary, in opposing the plan.  Following a public inquiry which ended in February [...]

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has rejected an application for a driveway across Long Green and Spears Hill Common, at Wortham in Suffolk. 
Mrs KMP Smith, the owner of Deo Gratias which adjoins the common, had applied, under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006, for consent to construct an access [...]

Michael Clare, founder of the Bed emporium ‘Dreams’, and his wife Carol must remove a high, galvanised-steel ‘gate’ which they erected without planning permission on their £22-million estate, Turville Court.  They then sought retrospective consent from Wycombe District Council, which has been refused.  The matter is now in the hands of the council’s enforcement officer.
The [...]

The society has objected to a retrospective planning application for a close-boarded fence, nearly two metres high, alongside the public footpath at Deanacre, off Deanfield Road in Henley-on-Thames.
Mr Philip Turner, of 2 Deanacre, has applied to South Oxfordshire District Council for consent for the fence which was erected without planning permission last year, replacing a [...]

We are backing local campaigners in their fight to save ancient woodlands from development, at Titnore Lane, West Durrington near Worthing in West Sussex.  We have written to Paul Yallop, leader of Worthing Borough Council, and James Appleton, head of planning, urging them to reject the plans for 1,250 houses and other buildings there.
The proposed [...]

We have today questioned Bristol’s claims to be a ‘green capital’.
Objecting to an application by Bristol Zoo to continue to use one of the best parts of the city’s famous Downs as a large car park on the finest days of the year, Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary said:
‘This is the fifth time the Zoo [...]

The claimed footpath at Carlyon Bay, St Austell in Cornwall is at last being reopened, after being submerged by development.  The society’s members Gloria and Peter Price have led the campaign to win back the path.
The Prices claimed the route, from Beach Road to the former Coliseum Building, for the official map of public paths [...]