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Misdeeds and no deeds

October 27, 2020

On 28 September the Prime Minister pledged to protect an additional 400,000 hectares (1,562 square miles) of England’s countryside to support ‘the recovery of nature’.  A fine promise but what does it mean? The recovery of nature is immensely important, so too is the recovery of people.  The pandemic has shown the value of local…

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October update: Open Space Charters

October 22, 2020

This year people have enjoyed their local green spaces as never before. Now is the time to protect and expand them. In early August we wrote to every planning authority in England and Wales (nearly 400 of them), Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and Julie James, the Welsh…

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Registration of land at Goose Holme

October 22, 2020

We have welcomed the decision of Cumbria County Council to register land at Goose Holme, Kendal, as common land. The decision was made at the council’s development control and regulation committee on Friday 9 October, and will add about 0.45 hectares of land, much of it comprised in the bed of the River Kent, to…

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Clayton Fields, threatened space in Kirklees

Government’s demolition of the planning system

October 21, 2020

We have slated the government’s white paper, Planning for the Future.  In our response to the government consultation, we have argued that the proposed reforms will put precious open spaces and paths at risk. The government proposes to divide the country into three planning zones: ‘growth’ (suitable for substantial development), ‘renewal’ (suitable for development) and…

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Photo of ancient long house at Bryngwyn Bach on Rhos Gelli Gron common, close to the proposed fence-line. © Alan Richards, Creative Commons Licence

We oppose fence across historic landscape in Ceredigion

October 20, 2020

We have objected to an application from the Caron Estate for a 1,589-metre fence across Rhos Gelli Gron common, near Tregaron in Ceredigion. The estate applied for the fencing under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006.  The application is determined by the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of the environment minister.  The Open Spaces Society…

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The Skreen development site Google street view

We fight proposed development on Powys common

October 15, 2020

The society has objected to a planning application for a dwelling, garage, workshop, driveway and associated works on and adjacent to a common near Erwood in Powys. Mr Richard King of Skreen Cottage, Llandeilo Graban, has applied for the development with no mention of the fact that the land affected is a registered common, The Skreen,…

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Landscapes Review – what next?

October 8, 2020

Shoulder to shoulder with other influential NGO organisations including Campaign for National Parks, National Trust, Ramblers, RSPB, Youth Hostels Association, CPRE, The Wildlife Trusts and the British Mountaineering Council, and now a year since the publication of the Landscapes Review, we have written to Rt Hon George Eustice MP, Secretary of State for the Environment,…

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We fight unfair land-swap at Clyne Common

September 22, 2020

As Britain’s leading pressure-group for common land [1], we are angry that the Duke of Beaufort’s Somerset Trust, the owner of part of Clyne Common, south-west of Swansea, has reapplied for a land swap, having withdrawn a similar controversial application in April. The trustees of the Somerset Trust have applied to the Welsh environment minister,…

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Agricultural grants must be properly enforced

September 8, 2020

We have criticised as weak and ineffective the government’s proposals for monitoring and enforcing compliance with agricultural grants.   In its consultation, Financial Assistance Statutory Instrument, the government proposes to monitor the use of public funds for delivering public goods as part of the new agricultural grant programme post Brexit.  However, it only proposes to…

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Open Spaces Society fights stopping up of public highway in Mumbles

September 7, 2020

We have objected to plans by the Welsh Government to stop up a public highway on the foreshore side of Oyster Wharf at Mumbles, Swansea. The Transport Orders Branch of the Welsh Government has made an order under section 247 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to stop up the highway—but it can…

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