Latest News

Our new campaigner in Buckinghamshire’s former Chiltern district

November 28, 2022

We have appointed Aidan Harris as our local correspondent for the former Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire. On behalf of the society, Aidan will champion public paths, and commons, greens and other open spaces in his patch.  He will respond to proposals to alter the routes of public paths and advise the society and its members…

Read More

An open letter to Cornwall Councillors from Open Spaces Society member, Hugh Gladden

November 17, 2022

Open Spaces Society member, Hugh Gladden, recently wrote to the Cornish Times, expressing his disappointment at the council’s failure in its duty to prevent paths being obstructed. You can read his letter below.  Hundreds of landowners commit criminal offences, but Cornwall Council and its councillors look the other way. Under the Highways Act (1980) local…

Read More

This Christmas, paths and open spaces matter- now more than ever

October 31, 2022

The climate emergency and the government’s recent onslaught on the environment, nature, and our enjoyment of them, highlight the importance of the outdoors for our health and well-being, and for growth.  Now more than ever we must keep fighting for village greens, commons, rights of way and for public access to open spaces for everyone…

Read More
Photograph of the Dyke Hills with the landowner, Keith Ives (centre). Louise Aukland (left) and Becky Waller (right) submitted an application for this to be registered as a village green

New village greens at Dorchester on Thames and Little Wittenham, Oxfordshire

October 31, 2022

We are celebrating the registration of two new village green at Dorchester on Thames and Little Wittenham in Oxfordshire.  The greens at the historic Dyke Hills (3.03 hectares), a scheduled Iron Age settlement, and at Day’s Lock Meadow (2.37 hectares) beside the River Thames.  They have been voluntarily registered by a beneficent landowner, Keith Ives.…

Read More

Autumn crisis

October 26, 2022

Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook reflects on the current attack on the environment. ‘… now it is time unequivocally to act’ wrote Louis MacNeice in Autumn Journal in 1938.  And so it is in this autumn, when government has suddenly made a full-frontal onslaught on the environment, nature, and our enjoyment of them. First there…

Read More

Manifesto for the next generation

October 5, 2022

We were delighted to be invited to join the Resurgence Summit on 24 September at the Knepp estate in West Sussex. Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, reports on the day. The event was organised by Heal Rewilding, Youngwilders, and Knepp Wildland Foundation. Its aim was to enable young people to discuss public access and nature,…

Read More

Planning undermined

September 29, 2022

The society is deeply concerned about recent government announcements on planning, deregulation and growth.  Our case officer Nicola Hodgson gives an update on the alarming situation. The government’s Growth Plan will damage the environment, public access, and local democracy.  The new policies appear to conflict with the ambitions and targets of the Environment Act, and…

Read More

Threat to farming funds for access

September 29, 2022

We are deeply concerned to learn that the government may renege on its commitment to use agricultural payments for environmental and access improvements.  The recent statement from Defra gives us little comfort. With other organisations we have, for the last six years, pushed relentlessly for agricultural funding in the Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) to…

Read More

Land registered as common at Teneriffe in Cornwall

September 23, 2022

We celebrate the decision by the Planning Inspectorate to grant our application to register two small pieces of land (0.146 hectare) situated two miles south of Mullion in Cornwall. The land was provisionally registered as common land under the Commons Registration Act 1965, but late in the day the applicant withdrew the application and the…

Read More

We help to protect Hamsterley green, County Durham

September 23, 2022

We have welcomed a decision which will help protect Hamsterley village green, VG45, six miles west of Bishop Auckland in County Durham. Hamsterley Parish Council had applied to the environment secretary for permission to deregister part of the green, which includes a ribbon of green verge along Saunders Avenue, to facilitate access to a new…

Read More