News

The Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, has announced that she intends to abolish the Commons Commissioners (22 July).
We are sad to see the passing of the Commons Commissioners, who played an important role in determining the common-land maps of today, a band of erudite lawyers who travelled the length and breadth of England and Wales to [...]

Swansea Council’s South West Area Planning Committee has rejected an application from Carrington Moore Estates, in which the former Welsh rugby captain Andy Moore has an interest, which threatened Picket Mead Common at Newton.(2)
The planning application was for five detached dwellings and associated works at Picket Mead House, Murton Lane. The officers recommended approval [...]

Three new tennis-courts and other works have been permitted on Therfield Heath Common in Hertfordshire.
The Conservators of Therfield Heath, on behalf of Royston Tennis Club, sought consent from the Planning Inspectorate, under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006, for three new and three replacement tennis-courts, lighting columns, a log-cabin clubhouse and mesh fencing on [...]

‘The unique landscape of Mynydd y Gwair should be treasured not trashed.’
So says the Open Spaces Society(1) as the public inquiry opens into RWE Npower Renewables’ application to build 19 wind turbines on the lovely mountain top of Mynydd y Gwair, eight miles north of Swansea. The inquiry started on Tuesday 20 July.
We are [...]

England’s conservation organisations have joined forces to paint a grim picture of a countryside starved of money by budget cuts.
On the 30th anniversary of the Wildlife and Countryside Link, of which the Open Spaces Society is a member, its members have issued an unprecedented warning about what the future would hold should the Government slash [...]

‘The governments in England and Wales should recognise that common land matters.’ So declared Paul Clayden, our vice-president, who chaired our annual general meeting on 6 July.

‘Commons are the secret gems in our landscape, ancient places which have remained largely unchanged through history. We are dismayed that the Westminster government is so dilatory [...]

Plans for eight wind-turbines at Palmers Hollow, Bottesford, Leicestershire, have been rejected by a government inspector.
The developer, Ridgewind, appealed because Melton Borough Council failed to determine the planning application within the statutory period, and the case was heard by inspector Chris Frost at an 11-day public inquiry. We objected to the application, [...]

The national seminar on common land and town and village greens on 1 July, at the University of Gloucester, rejected the notion of a wholesale review of the laws for the registration of new greens.
Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, proposed the motion This seminar believes that little change is needed to [...]

We joined the National Trust and the Ringwood and Fordingbridge Footpath Society on 29 June in marking the restoration by the trust of an important seat on Hightown Common in the New Forest. We toasted the society’s founder, Lord Eversley, in whose memory the 40-acre common was acquired in 1929, the year after his [...]

OSS members enjoyed the society’s open day, at Netley Abbey in Hampshire, on 26 June. The event was hosted by our member, the Bursledon Rights of Way and Amenities Preservation Group which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year. There were talks and discussion about open spaces and paths in the morning, with [...]