Archive for February 2024
Land restored as common on Dartmoor
We welcome the Planning Inspectorate’s decision to grant the society’s two applications to register as common three parcels of rough grassland near Blackdown Common, Mary Tavy, in the Dartmoor National Park. Two of the parcels are adjacent to each other, east and south of Willsworthy car park. Together, these amount to about 33 hectares. The…
Read MorePath-block shock
In January, the BBC revealed the shocking results of its survey on the state of public paths in England and Wales. Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, comments on these findings. Paths, it showed, are blocked at 32,000 points, that is one obstruction every four and a half miles—and the problems are growing. Seventy three of…
Read MoreCourt threat causes Cornwall Council to climb down over unrecorded path
We are delighted that Cornwall Council has capitulated in the face of court action, led by the British Horse Society (BHS), against the council’s failure to register applications to add public paths to the official map as required by law. [1] The BHS had applied in September 2023 for a path at Altarnun (11 kms…
Read MoreThe disposal of open space on Swansea’s Kilvey Hill
Swansea Council advertised notice of disposal of open space on Kilvey Hill, under section 123(2A) of the Local Government Act 1972, in anticipation of the council granting planning permission for the massive Skyline leisure development on the hill. The Open Spaces Society was among many objectors, arguing that the disposal was contrary to the council’s…
Read MoreWe help to save Mucklewick Hill, Shropshire, from disfigurement
We are delighted that Shropshire Council’s planners have rejected an application for a 15-metre-high telecommunications mast with ancillary equipment on Mucklewick Hill in the Shropshire Hills National Landscape. The hill is 15 miles south-west of Shrewsbury, and six miles north-east of Bishops Castle in south Shropshire. The society, the Shropshire Area of the Ramblers, and…
Read MoreOur new representative in Spelthorne Borough, Surrey
We have appointed Ashley Redsell as our local correspondent to watch over the commons of Spelthorne Borough in Surrey. Ashley will keep a close eye on developments in Spelthorne, and where attempts are made to take over common land, he will work with the borough and county councils, and local residents to prevent this destruction. …
Read MoreWhere are the new public spaces? We challenge government pledge
The 31 January was the first anniversary of the government’s pledge, in its Environmental Improvement Plan, that (within five years) ‘the public will benefit from a new commitment to access green space or water within a 15-minute walk from their home, such as woodlands, wetlands, parks and rivers’. A year on, we question what is…
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