We help to save valuable footpath at Wimbish, Essex
We have helped to save the attractive 463-metre footpath, south of Wimbish Green, six kilometres south-east of Saffron Walden, in Uttlesford District, Essex. The path, known as Wimbish footpath 70, runs through the grounds of three residential properties. The owner of one of them, Midfield, applied to close the route under section 118 of the Highways Act…
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It’s time to complete unfinished business on commons and greens
Our call to government on the twentieth anniversary of landmark legislation We are marking the twentieth anniversary of the Commons Act 2006 by urging the government to complete the job this landmark legislation began for protecting these vital green areas. The Commons Act 2006 won royal assent on 19 July 2006. The society hailed the Act as…
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What will government’s plans for nature provide for public access?
We have questioned what the government’s plan to protect 30 per cent of England for nature will do for public access. The society welcomes the government’s commitment to provide funding, particularly for protected landscapes, to restore nature, and notes that it also promises to ‘improve access to green space’. The government statement says that ‘the country’s new national forests are a key part of that’. Says…
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Two beauty-spot commons in Cornwall saved
We are celebrating the quashing of an inspector’s two decisions to refuse to register new commons in Hayle, Cornwall. On 30 December 2020, two applications were made to register common land, one by Tomas Hill in relation to 99 hectares of tidal land at Hayle Estuary, and another in relation to 54 hectares of land at Hayle Towans with Tomas Hill acting for the applicant. The applications were made under the Commons…
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Blackwell Parkland, Darlington, secured as a village green
On 23 June 2026 Darlington Borough Council registered Blackwell Parkland as a village green, ensuring that it is protected for ever and local people have rights of recreation here. This was a culmination of an eight-year campaign by the Parkland Heritage Network, backed by the society. The Network had joined us and sought our advice…
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Chris Beney, accessibility champion
We are extremely sad to report that Chris Beney, our trustee and local correspondent, has died aged 93. He was active to the end. Chris was an electrical engineer who was able to retire at the age of 55. That was to the great benefit of the Bushey and District Footpaths Association, which he founded…
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We recover common land in Cornwall
We are delighted that land in Cornwall has been registered as common. Planning inspector Daniel Young has granted the society’s application to register as common land approximately 3.8 hectares of land situated about 1.5 miles east of St Just, in the far south-west of the county. The land comprises swathes of heather and gorse and…
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‘Deeds, not words’
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, urges the government to keep up the Labour tradition of legislation for public access in town and country. Jess Phillips, resigning on 12 May as Safeguarding Minister, summed it up well. She wrote to the Prime Minister: ‘Every Labour government in my and my family’s lifetime has forged progress that…
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Path protectors celebrate reopening of blocked Cornish footpath
The Ramblers and the Open Spaces Society are delighted to have achieved the reopening of a severely blocked public footpath, with broken clapper-bridge, in the parish of St Buryan Lamorna Paul, 3.5 miles south of Penzance in Cornwall. The half-mile path runs parallel to the England Coast Path/South West Coast Path, near Kemyel Crease nature reserve. The path, which had been inaccessible for several decades, is breath-taking, affording panoramic views of the coast, contouring the…
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Bicentenary of Eton lammas lands
Two hundred years ago, on 1 May 1826, the lammas lands of Eton and Eton Wick were saved for the people. These commons extend between the two settlements in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. In 1826 the then lord of the manor, John Penn, who had already inclosed his land in Stoke Poges,…
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