Residents save Bucks green

Congratulations to our member the Penn & Tylers Green Residents’ Society in Bucks who have won a five-year campaign to register two verges as village green and have set an excellent example to other communities. The land consists of two, wide, roadside verges leading from the Hazlemere to Penn road (the B474) into Coppice Farm…

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Richard Harland, 1920 – 2013

We remember Richard Harland, our former vice-chairman who died aged 93 last November, and  who made a quiet but significant contribution to commons and access. Richard Harland was a Quaker, a pacifist and campaigner, who loved beautiful landscapes and their history, and had a strong belief that people should be free to enjoy the countryside.…

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Fencing on Hunsdon Mead common is approved

The Planning Inspectorate has approved an application from the Herts and North Middlesex Wildlife Trust for fencing on Hunsdon Mead Common in Essex. The trust applied to erect a permanent, 1,000-metre fence along the line of the towpath boundary of the common to prevent disturbance of sheep grazing the common. We objected because the fence…

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Welsh Government’s threat to village greens

We have responded robustly to the Welsh Government’s draft Planning Bill in which it proposes to prohibit the registration of land as a town or village green where it has been identified for development. The government also plans to enable landowners to deposit statements with the registration (unitary) authority, challenging people’s use of the land…

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We welcome electronic registers for Welsh commons

We are delighted that the Welsh Minister for Natural Resources, Alun Davies, has pledged to introduce electronic registers for all common land in Wales. He made the announcement on 12 February, undertaking to invest £5 million in the project which will be completed by the end of 2017. There are 175,000 hectares of common land…

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Saving Welsh village greens from changes in planning law

The Open Spaces Society opposes the Welsh Government’s draconian proposals in its draft Planning Bill to make it more difficult for people to register  land as a town or village green.  The government wants to prohibit applications where land has been identified for planning, and to enable landowners to submit declarations to the common registration…

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Government’s new attack on beleaguered green spaces

Update:  On 28 January, the order was confirmed by both Houses, see below: House of Commons debate House of Lords debate Read the confirmed order here. The government has struck yet another blow at open spaces. On Tuesday 28 January parliamentary committees will be asked to rubber-stamp a set of measures which make it even…

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