Misdeeds and no deeds

On 28 September the Prime Minister pledged to protect an additional 400,000 hectares (1,562 square miles) of England’s countryside to support ‘the recovery of nature’.  A fine promise but what does it mean? The recovery of nature is immensely important, so too is the recovery of people.  The pandemic has shown the value of local…

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October update: Open Space Charters

This year people have enjoyed their local green spaces as never before. Now is the time to protect and expand them. In early August we wrote to every planning authority in England and Wales (nearly 400 of them), Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and Julie James, the Welsh…

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Registration of land at Goose Holme

We have welcomed the decision of Cumbria County Council to register land at Goose Holme, Kendal, as common land. The decision was made at the council’s development control and regulation committee on Friday 9 October, and will add about 0.45 hectares of land, much of it comprised in the bed of the River Kent, to…

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Government’s demolition of the planning system

Clayton Fields, threatened space in Kirklees

We have slated the government’s white paper, Planning for the Future.  In our response to the government consultation, we have argued that the proposed reforms will put precious open spaces and paths at risk. The government proposes to divide the country into three planning zones: ‘growth’ (suitable for substantial development), ‘renewal’ (suitable for development) and…

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Remembering two friends

We have received generous legacies from two members who we belatedly heard had died.  Our general secretary, with much supplementary information from their friends, remembers them with gratitude.   Olive Entwistle, 1925-2017 The champion of Chorleywood Common in Hertfordshire, our life member Olive Entwistle, died in June 2017 aged 92. Olive was born in London…

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We oppose fence across historic landscape in Ceredigion

Photo of ancient long house at Bryngwyn Bach on Rhos Gelli Gron common, close to the proposed fence-line. © Alan Richards, Creative Commons Licence

We have objected to an application from the Caron Estate for a 1,589-metre fence across Rhos Gelli Gron common, near Tregaron in Ceredigion. The estate applied for the fencing under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006.  The application is determined by the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of the environment minister.  The Open Spaces Society…

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We fight proposed development on Powys common

The Skreen development site Google street view

The society has objected to a planning application for a dwelling, garage, workshop, driveway and associated works on and adjacent to a common near Erwood in Powys. Mr Richard King of Skreen Cottage, Llandeilo Graban, has applied for the development with no mention of the fact that the land affected is a registered common, The Skreen,…

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Landscapes Review – what next?

Shoulder to shoulder with other influential NGO organisations including Campaign for National Parks, National Trust, Ramblers, RSPB, Youth Hostels Association, CPRE, The Wildlife Trusts and the British Mountaineering Council, and now a year since the publication of the Landscapes Review, we have written to Rt Hon George Eustice MP, Secretary of State for the Environment,…

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