News

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 [...]

We have called on Councillor Ann John, chairman of Brent Council’s General Purposes Committee, to resolve to reopen the blocked path across Northwick Park golf course, rather than persist in trying to close it.

The committee will consider a recommendation from its Director of Environment and Culture tomorrow (29 June) to remake the flawed [...]

We are calling on the government to recognise in its spending review the value to the nation of green spaces, lovely places and public paths and access.
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, was speaking at an open day at Netley Abbey, Hampshire, organised by the Bursledon rights of Way and Amenities Preservation Group and opened by [...]

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has permitted East Sussex County Council to fence the Chailey Commons at North Chailey, two miles south-west of Newick.(3) The application, to which we objected, was considered at a public inquiry in March 2010, at which the inspector was Mr Peter Millman.
The council applied [...]

A public inquiry opens on Tuesday (22 June) into Swansea Council’s plan to close the public footpath over the former slip-bridge on the seafront in Swansea. We are among the objectors to the proposals.
The council has made an order to close the path on the grounds that it is not needed for public use [...]

We have objected to plans by Heathrow Airport Ltd to take common land and open space at Staines Moor in Surrey for the construction of a new rail-link. The promoters are offering land in exchange, but we consider this to be grossly inadequate.
Staines Moor is a unique, medieval landscape, surviving as a previous wilderness [...]

On 12 June a band of 60 walkers joined the Action for Access protest walk to highlight the unfair banning of public access to open downland in the new South Downs National Park.
The land is at Breaky Bottom, on the chalk escarpment between Brighton and Lewes in East Sussex, owned by Peter Hall of Breaky
Bottom [...]

We are pressing North Hinksey Parish Council to drop its plans to make ‘improvements’ in the wooded part of the Louie Memorial Fields.(1)
The council’s plans are not known in detail because they have not been divulged to the public, but among other things, the intention is to hard-surface the path through woods, a charming copse [...]

Somerset County Council has agreed that there will be a public inquiry into the application to register Yeovil Rec (Mudford Recreation Ground), Yeovil, as a town green.
The council has resolved to hold an inquiry at which barrister Leslie Blohm QC will act as inspector. The inquiry will be held over the summer.
We have been [...]

Luton Borough Council plans to erect locked gates across the popular Beech Hill footpath.  The path provides a direct and useful link between Dunstable Road and Ash Road, and to Beech Hill Community Primary School.
In 2008 the council abandoned its plan to close the route, which was illegally blocked and, with the Bedfordshire Rights of [...]