What’s best in Britain?
The World At One (BBC Radio 4) is 50 this year and has invited people to offer suggestions for where Britain is best. We have sent in our idea: common land. This is what we wrote. Common land goes back to before medieval times when land was shared and people lived off the land; then…
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Improved scheme at Whitwell Common, Norfolk
We are pleased to have won improvements to a scheme, proposed by the Whitwell Common Trust, to fence part of the common near Reepham in Norfolk. The trust proposed to fence the common to enable the fen habitat to be grazed by livestock, in the interests of biodiversity. The society was concerned that the fencing…
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Building on Anglesey common shows need for new local-authority duty on commons
We are dismayed that Anglesey County Council has refused to take enforcement action against unlawful works on registered common land at Glanrafon, Llangoed. In March this year we wrote to Mrs Dilys Lowe, the owner of common land at Glandwr Cottage, Glarafon, to ask her to stop building a bungalow on the common. Mrs Lowe…
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Giving Henley a hand for Entente Florale
At the invitation of our member Henley-on-Thames Town Council our general secretary Kate Ashbrook spent part of our 150th birthday on Sunday meeting the judges of the Entente Florale European competition. The council had entered for the award, having been nominated by a Britain in Bloom judge. The ten judges came from all over Europe,…
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Counting our battle honours
150 years ago on Sunday (19 July) at a meeting in a lawyer’s chambers in London, our organisation was launched: Britain’s oldest national conservation body. Without the society countless commons, green spaces and public paths would have been lost for ever. And there would be no National Trust, since it was the society’s founders who…
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Wycombe Rye rescue a milestone in the Open Spaces Society’s 150-year history
‘We saved the incomparable Wycombe Rye 50 years ago through joint local and national effort,’ said Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary. Kate was giving a talk to the High Wycombe Society on 15 July. Says Kate: ‘In 1964 the secretary of the newly-formed Wycombe Rye Protection Society, forerunner of the High Wycombe Society, wrote to…
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We are delighted that Bodmin Moor is to have a Commons Council
The society is delighted that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has resolved to set up a commons council for Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. There was a public consultation in March and April, and the environment secretary had to be satisfied that there was ‘substantial support’ for the plan. In fact,…
Read MorePrivate garage refused on Cornwall common
The Planning Inspectorate has rejected an application from Mr Robert George to build a domestic garage on registered common land at Carnkie, Wendron, near Helston in Cornwall. We were the sole objector to the application. The inspector, Mr Richard Holland, ruled that ‘the proposed garage, which is for wholly private benefit, will unacceptably interfere with…
Read MoreOur AGM marks ups and downs for green spaces
‘The Open Spaces Society has never been more needed in its 150-year history than today, as green spaces are increasingly threatened.’ So declared our vice-president, open spaces expert Paul Clayden, at our annual general meeting today (9 July). ‘The society played a significant role in rescuing Welsh village greens from the damaging law which has prevented their…
Read MoreSouth Wales commons saved from industrial development
We are overjoyed that the Welsh Government has rejected applications by RWE Innogy Ltd to erect wind-turbines and other structures on Mynydd y Gwair and adjoining commons, eight miles north of Swansea. The decision follows a public inquiry last year. The developers wanted to erect 16 wind turbines, an access track, electricity transformers, crane hard-standings,…
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