New package to rescue lost ways
We have welcomed the package of proposals to government from the Stakeholder Working Group on Unrecorded Public Rights of Way. The group, consisting of representatives of user groups, landowners and local authorities, was brought together by Natural England to find a solution to recording historic paths many of which have become lost. Its report, Stepping…
Read MoreWaverley viaduct
Our local correspondent for Carlisle, Ken West, is urging people to sign up to the petition to Carlisle City Council and Cumbria County Council, calling on them to purchase Waverley Viaduct and enable it to be restored and maintained as a historic feature and for use by walkers and cyclists. For further information contact Ken.
Read MoreFields of vision – a literary study-day
Sign up to an informal study-day devoted to the lives and writings of Richard Jefferies and Edward Thomas, on Saturday 8 May 2010 at Liddington in Wiltshire. The day ends with a visit to St James’s church at Eastbury in West Berkshire, with a window engraved by Laurence whistler, commemorating Edward and Helen Thomas. For…
Read MoreHigh Court win for Warneford Meadow campaigners
A High Court judge has ruled that the 20-acre Warneford Meadow in east Oxford can be registered as a town green. Judge Waksman QC rejected the application for judicial review from the landowner, the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust. The trust challenged Oxfordshire County Council’s decision in April 2009 to register the land…
Read MoreNew green in Highworth
Local campaigners have won a new village green at Barra Close, Highworth near Swindon. However, approximately 5,000 square feet of the land had been fenced off during a neighbour dispute, and this part of the land still has to be registered as village green. This week the fences were removed and now local campaigners are…
Read MoreThe loss of Petticoat Lane
We are dismayed that Petticoat Lane in Newport, Isle of Wight, will be destroyed by Sainsbury’s development. The society backed local objectors in their campaign to save the path. The Isle of Wight Council endorsed the path-change and a public inquiry was held in January. The public inquiry inspector, Peter Millman, has ruled that the…
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Barratt’s pre-emptive strike
We have deplored Barratt Homes’ action last week to bulldoze The Ditches, a much-loved children’s play area, at Merton Green in Caerwent. The Merton Green Action Group has applied to register the open space as a village green. Monmouthshire County Council, the greens registration authority, will consider the application next week and there is likely…
Read More‘Monumental’ Supreme Court judgment for new greens
We are delighted at today’s unanimous judgment from the Supreme Court(1) which orders Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council to register Coatham Common(2) as a village green.(3) The society backed local inhabitants in their bid to register the land. In order for land to be registered as a green, local people need to show that a…
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Norfolk gets results with enforcement on public paths
We have praised Norfolk County Council for taking enforcement action on public paths in the county. Last year the council served a notice on the landowner who had illegally blocked the public footpath which runs alongside Little Hautbois Hall, the £1.8-million Tudor mansion in the parish of Buxton with Lammas. The landowner gave in and…
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Oppressive fence to go
South Oxfordshire District Council has refused retrospective planning permission to a close-boarded fence, nearly two metres high, alongside the public footpath at Deanacre, off Deanfield Road in Henley-on-Thames. Mr Philip Turner, of 2 Deanacre applied to the council to legitimise the fence which was erected unlawfully, without planning permission, last year. It replaced a lower,…
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