Latest News

We oppose plan for Baddesley Common

January 31, 2011

We have objected to the Friends of Baddesley Common’s plan to construct a pond on the common, near Atherstone in north Warwickshire. We have sent an objection to North Warwickshire District Council, because the pond will be detrimental to the existing landscape, will result in the loss of a rare habitat, and will interfere with…

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Losehill Hall sold off: we have reservations

January 26, 2011

We have mixed feelings about the announcement from the Peak District National Park Authority that Losehill Hall, the world-famous national park learning centre, is to be sold to the Youth Hostels Association (YHA). The society favoured the bid from the Field Studies Council, and when the park opted for the YHA’s tender, had hoped that…

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Westfield Common, Woking, threatened again

January 21, 2011

Woking Borough Council is consulting interest groups and local people on plans to swap part of Westfield Common.  The intention is to provide an access road to a potential new housing development north of Moor Lane. Woking Council wanted to deregister 387 square metres of the common.  It is wet woodland and a Site of…

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Localism Bill is a muddle for open spaces

January 13, 2011

We today roundly condemn the Localism Bill, the government’s flagship measure for giving people power to run their own lives and neighbourhoods.  The bill is due for second reading in the House of Commons on Monday 17 January. Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, says: ‘One of the bill’s most important aspects-the care and future of…

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Crash landing for microlight plans

January 4, 2011

We are delighted that Aylesbury Vale District Council has refused planning permission to Mr Mark Fowler to fly microlight aircraft from Bernwood Farm, Botolph Claydon in mid Bucks. The application was retrospective: Mr Fowler, the tenant of Bernwood Farm, was already flying aircraft there without consent. We backed our member the Botolph Claydon Quiet Society…

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Common land is key to the Welsh environment

January 4, 2011

We have responded to the Welsh Assembly Government’s consultation on A Living Wales—a new framework for our environment, our countryside and seas, by calling on it to recognise the importance of common land to the nation. Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘Common land covers over eight per cent of the land area of Wales.…

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Warwickshire’s threat to scrap paths team

January 4, 2011

We have responded angrily to Warwickshire County Council’s Head of Transport and Highways, Graeme Fitton, who has threatened to scrap the council’s Countryside Access Team. Mr Fitton has told us that the council needs to save £60 million by 2014 and that it is taking ‘a closer look’ at the countryside access service ‘with a…

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Yeadon Banks Green still undecided following appeal court ruling

December 22, 2010

The application to register five acres of treasured open space known as Yeadon Banks, on the outskirts of Leeds, as a town green is still not decided following a Court of Appeal judgment on Monday (20 December). Read the judgment here Mr Doug Jones, of Keep Yeadon Banks Green (KEYBAG) applied in 2004 to register…

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Our response to Peak Park’s decision on Losehill Hall

December 21, 2010

We have responded to the Peak District National Park’s decision to select the Youth Hostels Association as the preferred bidder for Losehill Hall in the Hope Valley in the heart of the national park. Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary (who addressed the park authority members at their meeting on Friday 17 December): ‘We are…

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Final countdown to decision on top national-park learning centre

December 16, 2010

We plan to speak at the Peak District National Park Authority’s meeting on Friday 17 December, where members will make a decision on the future of the highly-admired Losehill Hall in the Hope Valley, Derbyshire. Losehill Hall has belonged to the Peak Park for 40 years. Now, officers propose to sell or lease it, to…

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