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Can their lordships save our greens?

January 29, 2013

We have called on members of the House of Lords to support amendments to the Growth Bill which will prevent the government from emasculating the process for registering land as town or village greens. The House of Lords is set to debate these tomorrow (Wednesday 30 January). Land can be registered as a town or…

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Last chance to grab your greens – do it now!

January 8, 2013

Our new-year message. We have made a last-minute call to communities to apply to register land as town or village greens.  The government’s Growth and Infrastructure Bill, currently in the House of Lords, emasculates the process. The government falsely claims that greens registration is a barrier to development and wants to stop this.  Clause 14…

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Ammunition for fighting landowners’ path-diversions

December 28, 2012

A recent high court judgment spells out some of the arguments we can use in fighting plans to divert paths which are generated by landowners.   Read more about it here.

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New ammunition for fighting landowners’ path-diversions

December 28, 2012

Ever since we received a favourable opinion from George Laurence QC on the interpretation of ‘expedient’ in section 119 of the Highways Act 1980 (the section which deals with the diversion of public paths), the Ramblers and ourselves have been looking for a suitable case on which to test this. The case emerged when the…

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People vote for village greens with their feet

December 14, 2012

We have countered the government’s claim that applications to register land as a town or village green can undermine the democratically-accountable planning process, by pointing out that people vote for greens with their feet. We have sent a briefing to MPs before the report-stage debate on the government’s Growth and Infrastructure Bill on Monday (17…

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Government failing in ambition to be ‘greenest ever’

November 27, 2012

The Coalition Government is failing on its own commitments to Britain’s natural environment: that’s the public’s view from a survey organised by Wildlife and Countryside Link (Link), a coalition of 39 leading environmental charities. Of those surveyed, less than a quarter (23%) think the Government is doing enough to protect our landscapes and wildlife—on land…

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Government’s plans for village greens a kick in the teeth for localism

November 12, 2012

We have slated the government’s plans for town and village greens in the Growth and Infrastructure Bill as ‘a kick in the teeth for localism’. We are calling on Members of Parliament to speak against clause 13 of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill which is due for second reading in the House of Commons soon.…

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Changes to village green law will not fit the bill

November 12, 2012

The excessive measures in the Growth and Infrastructure Bill to change the law on registering land as a town or village green should be reconsidered. So say the Open Spaces Society and the Campaign to Protect Rural England who, among others, are campaigning to amend clause 13 of the Bill.  Without changes, the Bill would…

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Call to save England’s commons

October 27, 2012

The newly-formed Common Land Coalition of 16 diverse countryside bodies* has called on environment minister Richard Benyon urgently to implement the law to update England’s registers of common land.  They have written to the minister, and a letter is published in The Times today (Saturday 27 October). Common land is suffering because there is no…

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Growth and Infrastructure Bill: threat to greens

October 24, 2012

The Growth and Infrastructure Bill clause 13 will make it more difficult, if not downright impossible, to register land as a town or village green once it has been identified for development. The Bill says that a ‘trigger event’—which includes first publication of a planning application or identification of the land for potential development in…

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