30 December 2011
The year 2012 marks the centenary of the death of Octavia Hill, an early activist of the Open Spaces Society. Octavia became involved in the society in about 1875 shortly after her unsuccessful campaign to buy the fields between Swiss Cottage and Hampstead in west London. She joined the committee of the society, urging it [...]
We have called on communities throughout England to ‘get a green’ as part of the new neighbourhood planning system. This year communities throughout England will be developing their new neighbourhood development plans under the Localism Act 2011. This involves identifying where development should and should not take place. However, the law prevents development on land [...]
Apologies for the failure with our emails, they are now working. We may not have received any emails sent between midday on Wednesday 21 December and midday Friday 30 December, so please resend them to be sure. Happy new year.
26 December 2011
On 1 January 2012 the Open Spaces Society gains company status, registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, number 7846516. This follows our special general meeting on 23 November where members voted unanimously that the society should become a company. The society will continue to be known as the Open Spaces [...]
19 December 2011
We have responded robustly to an outburst from the Local Government Association today on new village greens. Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘The LGA has not produced hard evidence to back its allegation that people are applying for village green status in order to block development. ‘The LGA implies that this happens frequently. In [...]
9 December 2011
Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary, unveiled a plaque on Sugary Green, Dartmouth in south Devon on Friday 9 December, to celebrate registration of the land as a village green last June, and its protection from development. When the land near Castle Cove was threatened with major development in 2009, local publisher Richard Webb formed the [...]
6 December 2011
We are delighted that the case for registering Yeadon Banks as a town green has prevailed in the Court of Appeal. The five-acre Yeadon Banks is a much-loved open space on the outskirts of Leeds. On Friday (2 December) the Appeal Court rejected the arguments on behalf of the landowner, Leeds Group plc, that the [...]
2 December 2011
Chris Peat (a member of the society and clerk to Carlton Parish Council) organised a special celebration for the opening of a new definitive right of way on land between the villages of Carlton and Barton in the Beans, about ten miles west of Leicester. The new path links footpath S68 (on the well-known Leicestershire [...]
24 November 2011
A planning inspector, John Felgate, has rejected plans by Mr Mark Fowler to fly microlight aircraft from Bernwood Farm, Botolph Claydon in mid Bucks. Mr Fowler had appealed against Aylesbury Vale District Council’s refusal of consent in December 2010. The application was retrospective: Mr Fowler, the tenant of Bernwood Farm, was already flying aircraft there [...]
16 November 2011
‘The government could learn a lot from the Our Green Space project in Cumbria.’ So declares our general secretary Kate Ashbrook, who spoke at the project’s celebratory event in Penrith on 11 November. ‘Here five communities*, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Friends of the Lake District, have revitalised their local green [...]
