New plans for hidden highways
We are pleased that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is today (Monday 14 May) launching a public consultation about plans to make it easier to get England’s official map of public paths up to date. The ‘definitive’ maps of rights of way are lamentably incomplete. There are many public footpaths, bridleways…
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Natural England announces next phase of coastal access
We are delighted that, in the week when the Wales Coast Path was opened, Natural England has announced that it will start work on access to the next five stretches of England’s coast. These are: Durham, Hartlepool and Sunderland (Seaton Carew to South Bents) Cumbria (Allonby to Whitehaven) Kent (Ramsgate to Folkestone) Norfolk (Weybourne to…
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We call for new Wales body to focus on commons, spaces and paths
We have called for the new single environmental body in Wales to focus on common land, open spaces and public paths. The society has responded to the Welsh Government’s consultation paper, Natural Resources Wales. This invites views on the arrangements for establishing and directing a new body for the management of Wales’s natural resources, by…
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Spotlight on commons
BBC Radio 4 Farming Today is this week shining the spotlight on our common land. In every programme from 30 April to 4 May there is an interview about commons and their role in present-day society. The OSS was featured on Chorleywood Common, Hertfordshire, on Friday 4 May, discussing the parish council’s contentious fencing scheme…
Read MoreShortlist for our Open Space Award
We have announced the shortlist for our first-ever Open Space Award. Those in the running are: The Bishop’s Meadow Trust at Farnham in Surrey, Full Frontal in Medway, the Our Green Space Project in Cumbria, and Royd Regeneration in Mytholmroyd, Calderdale. The society was delighted with the response to its request for nominations for the…
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New protection for common land in Wales
We welcome the new measures brought into force in Wales on 1 April. These will give better protection to all registered common land—more than eight per cent of the land area of Wales. Welsh ministers have enacted part 3 of the Commons Act 2006, which sets out the process for obtaining consent from the Minister…
Read MoreKeep the Kinder torch aflame
‘We must keep the Kinder trespassers’ torch aflame,’ declared Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, speaking at the launch of the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass, in Edale on Tuesday 24 April. ‘We cannot be complacent, we cannot treat Kinder as mere history. The threats which the trespassers…
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Kinder 80 – celebrating the trespass
The Open Spaces Society will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass which took place on 24 April 1932. Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook is speaking at the launch event on Tuesday 24 April and the society has contributed to the programme. Says Kate: ‘There is nothing like the right to…
Read MoreUnlawful track on Gloucestershire common
We have urged Gloucestershire County Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council to take legal action against a track which has been constructed on common land. The track is on Brockeridge Common, near Twyning, Tewkesbury. The landowner, Mr Ewan Reynolds, was refused planning permission but has built the track anyway, and the borough council has issued a…
Read MoreWind-factory threat to Bowland beauty-spot
Community Windpower is trying for a third time to build wind turbines on an exposed hillside in the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Lancashire. Part of the site, Claughton and Whit Moors between Caton and Hornby, is registered common land. The company is preparing to submit a third planning application to…
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