Posts by Daniel Cregin
We fight threat to Guildford’s unique commons
We have written to Guildford Borough Council’s head of development, Barry Fagg, calling on the council to abandon its plan to use three areas of common land close to Guildford in Surrey as Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG). This is proposed to compensate for development close to the Special Protection Area (SPA) of Whitmoor Common…
Read MoreBeautiful scenery needs to be seen
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, talks to That’s Oxford TV about the society’s work in ensuring that the countryside is accessible to all and remains so.
Read MoreCommons registration: a half century
Fifty years ago today, 5 August 1965, the Commons Registration Act became law. The Open Spaces Society had pressed for the registration of commons for decades, and it was one of the principal recommendations of the Royal Commission on Common Land in 1958. During the passage of the Commons Registration Bill the society secured a…
Read MoreWe join forces with the High Wycombe Society for a celebratory Big Picnic on Wycombe Rye
OSS and the High Wycombe Society are jointly celebrating an important anniversary with a Big Picnic on Wycombe Rye on Sunday 9 August. It is 50 years since the Rye Protection Society, with help from the Open Spaces Society, saved The Rye from a road scheme. The event is free and open to all, from…
Read MoreSilver jubilee of village-green revival
It is twenty-five years since the gates reopened to allow people to register land as a village green where that land had failed to be registered under the Commons Registration Act 1965. On 1 August 1990, a quarter of a century ago, the society led the way in advising people what they could do, with stories in the…
Read MoreCommon land at East Pit, Neath Port Talbot, should be treasured not trashed
We have objected strongly to an application to develop common land at East Pit, Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen in Neath Port Talbot. Last month the county borough council approved plans from The Lakes at Rhosaman Ltd to extend the existing opencast site closer to communities. The planning permission will allow coaling to take place until 30 September 2018…
Read MoreChampioning Chiltern commons
As the Chilterns Commons Project comes to an end, project officer Rachel Sanderson reflects on its achievements. In the south-east of England, a large number of small commons provide important recreational facilities for people in urban and semi-urban communities. Over the last four years, the Chilterns Commons Project, run by the Chilterns Conservation Board, has…
Read MoreThe Royal Commission on Common Land at 60
Today, 25 July, marks the sixtieth anniversary of the establishment by parliament of the Royal Commission on Common Land in 1955. The commission made far-reaching recommendations for the future of commons in England and Wales. The society had been pressing for a royal commission for some time. In October 1953 it asked the Minister of Agriculture for…
Read MoreBuilding on Anglesey common shows need for new local-authority duty on commons
We are dismayed that Anglesey County Council has refused to take enforcement action against unlawful works on registered common land at Glanrafon, Llangoed. In March this year we wrote to Mrs Dilys Lowe, the owner of common land at Glandwr Cottage, Glarafon, to ask her to stop building a bungalow on the common. Mrs Lowe…
Read MoreImproved scheme at Whitwell Common, Norfolk
We are pleased to have won improvements to a scheme, proposed by the Whitwell Common Trust, to fence part of the common near Reepham in Norfolk. The trust proposed to fence the common to enable the fen habitat to be grazed by livestock, in the interests of biodiversity. The society was concerned that the fencing…
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