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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Railings refused on Hare Lane Green, Surrey
We have welcomed a decision of a planning inspector to turn down a proposal for raised walkway and railings on Hare Lane Green at Esher in Surrey. The Luminous Property Group had applied to the Secretary of State for consent to construct a raised and widened footway on Littleworth Road south of Claygate House, extending…
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How to use MAGIC
Do you want to know about the location of sites of special scientific interest, the distance between two places on a road or footpath, registered common land boundaries or to measure the area of a plot of land – we could go on? But the answer is almost certainly to be found in MAGIC. MAGIC…
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A toothless watchdog?
Our case officer Nicola Hodgson is keeping a close watch on the Environment Bill. This was introduced to parliament on 30 January 2020 with second reading on 26 February. The public-bill committee’s scrutiny was cut short by the covid-19 crisis, and the committee was expected to report to parliament by the end of June, but…
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Vocal for local
Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook considers life for the Open Spaces Society during lockdown. As lockdown began, I foolishly thought we would have time to catch up with all those long-deferred jobs. I was wrong: we have been busier than ever. Developers are not deterred by a pandemic: open spaces remain at risk, perhaps more…
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Coronavirus closures
Path campaigners with long memories will recall the widespread and damaging rights-of-way closures during the foot-and-mouth epizootic in 2001–02. Fears that SARS-COV2 would bring similar closures have proved generally to be mistaken — on the contrary, Government encouragement for continuing exercise during lockdown has greatly increased the use of some rights of way, and proved…
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The society in action – spreading the word
The society’s digital content and marketing manager, Nichola Finan gave a talk at our recent AGM outlining how the website and social media are being harnessed to spread the word. We want to promote the Open Spaces Society vision and mission to a wide range of supporters and potential members, plus government and other organisations…
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The society in action – our approach to the common land re-registration challenge
Our commons re-registration officer, Dr Frances Kerner, is researching lost commons which are eligible for registration as common land under part 1 of the Commons Act 2006. At the recent AGM, Frances gave a talk about the work involved to make an application to re-register ‘lost’ commons. The re-registration of common land comprises three strands…
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The society in action – Why I went to Lima
The seventeenth biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) was held in Lima and our general secretary represented the society. She writes of her experiences. This time the conference was called ‘In defence of the commons’, and it had a more practical feel about it than previous conferences which…
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