EU protection for Welsh commons

At the last minute before Brexit was completed the Welsh Government followed the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in applying environmental impact assessment (EIA) regulations to common land. This means that if a development proposal affecting a Welsh common is likely to have a significant effect on the environment, it must be assessed…

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Celebrating upland commons

Long Mynd, Shropshire Hills

Thanks to National Lottery players some of our best loved places in the uplands of England will be better looked after.  A partnership of 24 organisations, including the society, will empower those who graze common land, the commoners, to manage them better to restore peat, create habitats for birds and butterflies, and improve the quality…

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We help to save Surrey common from enclosure

The Villagers, about two years ago, with the entrance to the car park. Photo: Peter Trimming, Creative Commons Licence.

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has refused consent to the Hon Peter Herbert for fencing and a gate across part of Blackheath Common in Surrey.  Blackheath is four miles south-east of Guildford in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Peter Herbert, lord of the manor, wanted to erect…

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Hook Norton learns about common land

Port Meadow, Oxfordshire

‘Common land is frequently misunderstood.’  So declared our commons re-registration officer, Frances Kerner, who gave an illustrated online talk ‘What is Common Land?’ to the Hook Norton Local History Group in north Oxfordshire on 2 February. ‘The word “common” does not mean that the land is commonly owned.  Like all land in England and Wales…

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No Convenience for Knowle Green

Knowle Green bus shelter

The high court has quashed an order stopping up public access to highway land at Knowle Green in the borough of Solihull.  The order was made on our application.  The land comprises the public conveniences and surrounding land on a traffic island at the junction of Station Road and the High Street in Knowle. The…

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