Autumn crisis
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…
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Manifesto for the next generation
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,…
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Planning undermined
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…
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Threat to farming funds for access
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…
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Land registered as common at Teneriffe in Cornwall
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…
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We help to protect Hamsterley green, County Durham
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…
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Works compound rejected on Chobham Common, Surrey
We have welcomed the decision of an inspector to refuse consent for a new works-compound on Chobham Common in Surrey. The works were proposed by Sunningdale golf club, for which an application for consent was made under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006. Sunningdale new course lies largely on Chobham Common, whereas the old…
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Reopening of blocked footpath in Cornwall follows threat of legal action
Following a threat of legal action, a landowner has removed crops which were obstructing the route of a public footpath at St Ervan, three miles south-west of Padstow in Cornwall. The landowner is a St Ervan parish councillor. Cornwall Council, the highway authority, had failed in its legal duty to ensure the path remained unobstructed,…
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Hertfordshire paths-champion wins our prestigious Eversley Award
Mr Chris Beney of Bushey in Hertfordshire is the second-ever winner of the Open Spaces Society’s rarely-presented Eversley Award for Outstanding Personal Endeavour. The award is named after Lord Eversley, the distinguished founder of the society in 1865, and for many years its president and chairman. It is presented occasionally by the trustees to people…
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Our latest local correspondents’ conference
Fourteen of our local correspondents (about one third) gathered, with our chairman Phil Wadey and five members of staff, at Hillscourt conference centre, on the edge of the Lickey Hills near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, for a two-day event. It was an opportunity for us to update each other on the law and guidance, and to…
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