‘Keep up the good work!’ is the message from our members’ survey

‘Keep up the good work!’ is the message from our members’ survey In September 2021 we conducted our first members’ survey in over 7 years. We received an incredible response; almost 20%of our members completed the anonymous online questionnaire, answering wide-ranging questions about themselves, our organisation, the quality of our work and our website, as…

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Government ignores public access in new farm payments

OSS Footpath to west of Hope-under-Dinmore footpath HD4

Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, comments on the government’s lamentable failure to introduce public access into the new agricultural funding-regime. We are dismayed that the government’s new, post-Brexit, environmental land management scheme (ELMS), published on 2 December, fails to offer payments for public access and paths on farmland. This is despite repeated commitments from ministers,…

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Important missing link in Millennium Walk created at Maidenhead

Battlemead Common photo Maidenhead Civic Society

The Millennium Walk, a joint project of Maidenhead Civic Society and East Berks Ramblers, is a valuable trail as it links Hurley with Maidenhead Riverside, connecting with the Thames Path National Trail at both ends and opens up several pleasant circular walks. From Pinkneys Green it follows the Boundary Walk, a signed walk that follow…

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We back bid for new greens in Battle, East Sussex

Darvel Down green, Battle, East Sussex

We are backing our member, Mr Bev Marks, who is spearheading a campaign to protect Battle’s green spaces for ever, by registering them as town or village greens. Bev has proposed to Battle Town Council that it persuade the owners of four green spaces voluntarily to register them as greens. The spaces have been earmarked…

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The Environment Act—a mixed bag

Our case officer, Nicola Hodgson, analyses the new Environment Act and finds it wanting. While we welcome the new Environment Act, we consider it to be a missed opportunity for public health and well-being. We tried to win legally-binding targets for public access but the government rejected our proposed amendments. The act gives many more…

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People power

Downs for People celebrate their victory

So often success depends on the power of people coming together, writes our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook. Whether they are saving Bristol’s downs from car-parking, protecting London’s commons from commercial exploitation, or winning access to Worthing’s hinterland, the campaigning clout of local people is fundamental. And it always has been—witness the mass trespasses on Bolton’s…

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Book reviews autumn 2021

Police on Wanstead Flats July 1871. Credit Essex Field Club

James Chuter Ede by Stephen Hart (Pen & Sword £25 hardback, 354 pages). They don’t make politicians like Chuter Ede (1882-1965) any more. He came from a nonconformist (Unitarian) background and began in active politics as a Liberal. He joined the Labour Party towards the end of WWI in his mid-thirties, having served as a…

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Piddle Valley bridleway

Flooded bridleway in the Piddle Valley, Dorset

In the Piddle Valley, north of Dorchester in Dorset, a 2.5-mile bridleway has been a historic link between the three villages of Piddletrenthide, White Lackington, and Piddlehinton. Today it is in a parlous state. The Piddle Path Action Team writes of its efforts to restore it. The bridleway today is in places impassable for much…

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Much ado about nothing

The non-highway land (where the car is parked). Photo: Brian Keates

Our Coventry local correspondent John Hall, with assistance from one of our case officers, Hugh Craddock, exposes the sloppy approach to rights-of-way matters by the National Transport Casework Team (NTCT), and persuades it to put things right. In March, the NTCT proposed to make two orders under section 247 of the Town and Country Planning…

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Commercial commons

Local authorities in south London, keen on exploiting their commons and open spaces, are facing stiff opposition from local campaigners, writes our local correspondent for Lambeth and Wandsworth, Jeremy Clyne. Clapham Common has become a battleground because of Lambeth Council’s misuse of a large area, known as the ‘events site’. This is closed to the…

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