Archive for September 2020
We fight unfair land-swap at Clyne Common
As Britain’s leading pressure-group for common land [1], we are angry that the Duke of Beaufort’s Somerset Trust, the owner of part of Clyne Common, south-west of Swansea, has reapplied for a land swap, having withdrawn a similar controversial application in April. The trustees of the Somerset Trust have applied to the Welsh environment minister,…
Read MoreAgricultural grants must be properly enforced
We have criticised as weak and ineffective the government’s proposals for monitoring and enforcing compliance with agricultural grants. In its consultation, Financial Assistance Statutory Instrument, the government proposes to monitor the use of public funds for delivering public goods as part of the new agricultural grant programme post Brexit. However, it only proposes to…
Read MoreOpen Spaces Society fights stopping up of public highway in Mumbles
We have objected to plans by the Welsh Government to stop up a public highway on the foreshore side of Oyster Wharf at Mumbles, Swansea. The Transport Orders Branch of the Welsh Government has made an order under section 247 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to stop up the highway—but it can…
Read MoreMinister refuses to extend deadline for registering common land
We are dismayed that environment minister John Gardiner has refused to extend the deadline for re-registering lost commons beyond the end of December 2020. The society is concerned that, in seven English local authority areas1, the deadline for registering lost commons is 31 December, less than four months away. The research to uncover lost commons…
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