News

We have elected our first woman chairman in our 144-year history:  Jackie Warr, a solicitor from Great Bourton in north Oxfordshire.
Jackie follows a long line of distinguished chairmen, including Lord Eversley, a minister in Gladstone’s government, Sir John Brunner, a Liberal MP, and Cecil Harmsworth, a member of the newspaper family and Liberal MP.
 
Jackie is [...]

We are backing our member, Branksome Rec Action Group, in its campaign to save Branksome Rec from development by Poole Town Football Club.
The group hopes to register the 17-acre site in Poole as a town green, in recognition of its long use by local people for informal recreation.
Says our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook: ‘This open [...]

Conservationist and historian Rodney Legg is to retire after 20 years as our chairman. Before that he was the treasurer. He joined our management committee in 1980.
Rodney, from Wincanton in Somerset, has written numerous walks books for areas from the Jurassic Coast to Hadrian’s Wall.
‘Two decades of chairmanship is plenty long enough for any national [...]

Join staff and volunteers of the Open Spaces Society for an open day on Saturday 15 August, at the Memorial Hall, Aldbury from 2-6pm with a walk featuring The Battle of Berkhamsted Common led by naturalist and author Richard Mabey, or The Poachers’ Path to Aldbury Nowers, led by Chiltern Society founder Chris Hall. 
The day is topped [...]

The Welsh Assembly Government has approved an application for 15 wind-turbine generators on Mynydd y Betws Common, north-east of Ammanford in Carmarthenshire.  The environment minister has endorsed the recommendation of the public-inquiry inspector, Mr Stuart Wild.
The inquiry was three-pronged, because the applicants, Cambrian Renewable Energy Limited, required three separate consents.  They are: (1) planning consent, [...]

The Campaign to Protect Rural England is conducting a survey, and its aim is to ask people’s opinions about the potential uses of green belt land. The target group of the survey are those living in inner cities and those living and working in the green belt. CPRE would like to use this survey to [...]

We are dismayed that the Oxon and Bucks Mental Health Trust intends to seek a judicial review in the High Court of Oxfordshire County Council’s decision to register Warneford Meadow, Oxford, as a town green.  The society advised its member, the Friends of Warneford Meadow, on the registration process and donated £500 to the campaign.
Explains [...]

Staffordshire County Council wants to erect fencing on common land at Wolstanton, Newcastle under Lyme.  It has applied to the Planning Inspectorate for consent, under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006, to fence off an area for use by the adjoining May Bank Infants’ School.
We are concerned that the fencing will subdivide the common, [...]

We have backed the proposal in the Dartmoor National Park Authority’s draft Local Development Framework to define and protect important open spaces in settlements.  Open space is important to the landscape of a settlement and to its enjoyment by local residents and visitors. 
One need only look at those villages with open space at their hearts—Widecombe-in-the-Moor, [...]

We have objected to a planning application which would have a severe impact on open space Beechcroft Manor at Weybridge in Surrey.
The application, from Linthaven Ltd to Elmbridge Borough Council, is for a block of three houses, with access drive and parking spaces.
The proposed development will cause serious environmental damage to this beautiful area, in [...]