Latest News

View across Chesham Bois Common, Buckinghamshire

Chesham Bois Common saved from degradation

March 9, 2021

We are delighted that a damaging plan to create a tarmac, vehicular accessway on Chesham Bois Common in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns has been withdrawn in the face of objections. Last year St Leonard’s Church Parochial Church Council applied for planning permission for an accessway to the parish centre as part of a larger development comprising…

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Long Mynd, Shropshire Hills

Celebrating upland commons

February 16, 2021

Thanks to National Lottery players some of our best loved places in the uplands of England will be better looked after.  A partnership of 24 organisations, including the society, will empower those who graze common land, the commoners, to manage them better to restore peat, create habitats for birds and butterflies, and improve the quality…

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Joint statement on Permitted Development Rights: England

January 21, 2021

We, the undersigned, express our deep concern about the latest proposals for the expansion of Permitted Development Rights in England. These proposals[1]  will lower housing standards and accessible natural green infrastructure provision, extinguish local democracy, and end public participation. Communities and their local councils have simply lost control of many of the forms of development…

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Statement on criminal trespass

January 19, 2021

We have joined with eight other organisations in a letter to the Home Secretary, condemning plans to make trespass a criminal offence.  Our letter comes ahead of the publication of the government’s Police Powers and Protections Bill which will enact the Conservative Party’s manifesto commitment to ‘make intentional trespass a criminal offence’. The society has expressed…

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We back Vision for Planning 2021 launch

January 14, 2021

Our case office, Nicola Hodgson, has helped to craft this Vision for Planning document which was launched at an event on 14 January attended by the housing minister, Chris Pincher. Eighteen organisations representing housing, planning, transport, the environment, heritage and public health, came together to promote an alternative vision to the government’s Planning for the…

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Our last-minute bid to rescue lost commons

January 4, 2021

We have made 78 applications to rescue lost commons in England’s seven pioneer areas[1]  before the deadline of 31 December 2020. The applications are to register these precious spaces as common land.  If successful, they will give the public the right to walk, and in some cases to ride, on the land and will protect…

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Happy Christmas 2020

December 22, 2020

Watch our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook’s Christmas 2020 message.

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Our new watchdog for Market Harborough

December 3, 2020

We have appointed Peter Pollak as local correspondent for Market Harborough District in Leicestershire.  Peter will keep a close watch on paths, commons, greens and other open spaces in the area and will intervene when they are threatened. Peter was an Engineer Surveyor for the insurance business.  During that time, he undertook surveys of local…

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Livestock diversions

November 10, 2020

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), the Tenant Farmers’ Assocation and the Countryside Alliance have asked Defra Ministers to legislate to facilitate farmer-managed diversions on public paths to avoid cattle and other livestock. The Ramblers’ website offers a good summary of the position. The society has attended meetings with the CLA…

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Looking north-west over the new green towards the RCV estate

We win new green and new path for Witney

November 10, 2020

We have won a new town green and public footpath for the people of Witney in west Oxfordshire.  These public amenities are on land at Coral Springs, between Thorney Leys and the A40, which four years ago was developed by Richmond Care Villages (RCV). In building an estate of retirement homes RCV illegally blocked a…

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