Two commons to be fenced despite our objections
We are sorry that the environment secretary has given consent for fencing, for 20 years, on two commons: Bricketwood Common, near St Albans in Hertfordshire, and Tregonetha Common, near St Columb Major in mid-Cornwall. In both cases the applicant, St Albans Council for Bricketwood and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust for Tregonetha, argued that it was…
Read MoreFerris-wheel on Brighton highway
We have joined protestors against the plan by Paramount Attractions to erect a 45-metre-high ferris-wheel on Daltons Bastion, a public highway on Brighton’s seafront. The company was given planning permission in April but, because the wheel is to be sited on a public highway, Daltons Bastion, Brighton and Hove Council must also give consent under…
Read MoreMumbles developers must observe common-land law
We have written to John Bollom, the managing director of Amusement Equipment Co Ltd which has consent for a major development on the headland and foreshore at Mumbles. The society has reminded Mr Bollom of his company’s obligations regarding common land. The society was among the numerous objectors to the luxury hotel, apartments and associated…
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Rus in urbe—come to our open day!
The Open Spaces Society is holding an open day on Saturday 3 September, to explore some of the exquisite countryside around Harrow-on-the-Hill. Our members, the feisty Northwick Park Group, are hosting us at St Cuthbert’s Church Hall, 214 Carlton Avenue West, Wembley HA0 3QY, from 11.30am. In the morning there will be talks about the…
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Microlight plans still up in the air
We have joined forces with local campaigners to fight the appeal by Mr Mark Fowler against Aylesbury Vale District Council’s refusal of planning permission for microlight aircraft flights at Bernwood Farm, Botolph Claydon in mid Bucks. The application is retrospective: Mr Fowler, the tenant of Bernwood Farm, is already flying aircraft there without consent. We…
Read MoreOutdoor enthusiasts tell Forestry Panel: protect access for future generations
Outdoor enthusiasts have come together to tell the Independent Forestry Panel that access must be ‘at the heart’ of England’s future forestry policy and that access must be protected and guaranteed for future generations. The Forest Access User Group, made up of 10 outdoor organizations, representing over 8 million people who regularly use woodland, have…
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Rodney Legg’s funeral, 30 July 2011
Surrounded by 80 of his friends, Rodney Legg was buried in a wildflower meadow on a Dorset hillside on Saturday 30 July. A few weeks before he died on 22 July he had chosen the best spot in the lovely Higher Ground Meadow, Corscombe, on the prow of the hill overlooking the Dorset and Somerset…
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Land saved at Herbrand Walk Beach, East Sussex
The Herbrand Walk Beach Preservation Society, a member of the OSS, has achieved registration of a bank of natural shingle, south of Herbrand Walk, Cooden, Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, as a village green. The shingle is 463 metres in length by an average of 30 metres in width above the mean high-water mark. The land…
Read MoreWe fight glasshouse development across Essex footpath
We have opposed a massive glasshouse development across a public footpath, Nazeing footpath 10, in Essex. The society has written to Epping Forest District Council’s planning officer, objecting to the application from Valley Grown Nurseries, Paynes Lane, Nazeing, to erect 87,119 square metres of glasshouses plus an ancillary warehouse. We have pointed out that the…
Read MoreCumbrian activists threaten court action over blocked bridleway
As a last resort, the Redspearlands Footpath Group, a member of the Open Spaces Society, has served a notice on Cumbria County Council to open up the illegally blocked bridleway at Roewath Bridge at Stockdalewath, near Dalston, Carlisle. The path, which was first recorded as a right of way in 1950, has been illegally blocked…
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