We slate Bristol’s lack of traffic management which threatens the downs

We have slated Bristol City Council’s lack of traffic management which is threatening the city’s green spaces. This follows last week’s Development Control Committee decision to allow Bristol Zoo to park on the Downs for a further three years. Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary, said: ‘Yet again Bristol’s councillors have failed to take action to…

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Good outcome for Kingsmoor Common, Kilgetty

We are delighted that the Welsh Government has rejected an application from Pembrokeshire County Council to extinguish the common rights on 3.78 acres of Kingsmoor Common, Kilgetty.(1) The common is owned by the council. The council applied, under the Dyfed Act 1987, to remove the common rights from 1.89 acres to build a new retail…

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We deplore government decision to exclude Isle of Wight from coastal access

We have deplored the government’s decision to exclude the Isle of Wight from the coastal-access programme.  Coastal access is being implemented stage-by-stage around England under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, and last year the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs consulted on whether it should extend the coastal-access provisions to the Isle…

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We announce winners of 2013 Open Space Award

We were delighted to announce the winners of our prestigious, national Open Space Award for 2013 at the society’s AGM in Birmingham on Tuesday (16 July). The winning entry was from the Grange Area Trust for its campaign to save Widmer Fields at Widmer End and Hazlemere in Bucks. The fields have been threatened many…

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Our vice-president deplores lack of protection for green spaces

‘It is deplorable that, 16 months after the government published its plans for protecting England’s green spaces through a new Local Green Space Designation, very few such designations have been made.’ So declared Paul Clayden, our vice-president, at the society’s AGM in Birmingham on Tuesday (16 July). ‘In March 2012 the government published its National…

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Call for better protection of our unique common land

We are calling for better protection for the unique common land of England and Wales.  Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, spoke at a conference held at Newcastle University, Sustaining the Commons, on 5 July.   Said Kate: ‘While the term”‘common” is understood internationally to mean “shared resource”—whether land, sea, the air or even information—here in…

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We join fight against yet another Somerset solar-farm

We have objected to a planning application for a massive solar-installation close to Frome in the Somerset countryside.  This follows our objections to similar schemes at Doulting and Kilmersdon, Somerset, earlier this year.  We don’t object to all such developments but we do so when they adversely affect public access to, and enjoyment of, an…

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