We fight plan to sacrifice ancient Hertfordshire route
We are fighting plans to move an ancient route to make way for development at Broxbourne School in Hertfordshire. Broxbourne School plans to demolish the old school and build a new academy, with 150 houses on the former school site. As part of the development it wants to divert the route of an old road,…
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Bucks councils recognise value of Local Green Space
We are pleased that Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils have recognised the importance of Local Green Space in their new joint local plan. The councils have advocated that where land is proposed for removal from the green belt, the joint local plan will consider whether additional planning controls are appropriate, such as protection as…
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150th anniversary of Berkhamsted Common battle
On Sunday (6 March) with the National Trust we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the night raid to free Berkhamsted Common. On 6 March 1866, the year after its foundation, the Open Spaces Society organised a trainload of brawny navvies to pull down Lord Brownlow’s illegal iron fences and reopen the common to the people.…
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Stepping stones across the River Thame
Our local correspondent Chris Hall writes of the society’s efforts to record a route across the River Thame in Oxfordshire as a public footpath. Three miles east of industrial Cowley, deep and peacefully remote in the meadows of the Oxford green belt, is a legal battleground at grid reference SP 601 005. As recently as…
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Multi-million pound Firle Footpath ploughed up for the third time
For the third time, the Firle Estate has ploughed up a path that it gets a huge subsidy to keep open, despite promises to the Open Spaces Society given three months ago that it would be opened. The path, which runs south from the Barley Mow Pub at Selmeston, is one of the reasons that…
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New freedom to roam on Cissbury’s downland
Worthing Borough Council has dedicated its land at Mount Carvey and Tenants Hill for public access and enjoyment. It is close to the ancient Cissbury Ring, on the top of the downs above Worthing in the South Downs National Park in West Sussex. The decision follows a six-year campaign led by the Worthing Downlanders (formerly…
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Restore Fawley’s Walnut Tree pub for walkers
We have backed an application to Wycombe District Council to rebuild and restore the Walnut Tree pub at Fawley in Bucks. The site is at the hub of a number of public rights of way in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is passed by countless walkers, riders and cyclists. The pub closed…
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We fight damaging development in New Forest National Park
We are opposing an ugly solar ‘farm’ in the New Forest National Park. Last year the national park authority rejected a planning application from MTS Exbury Solar Ltd for a solar farm on nine hectares of land east of Lepe Farm, Exbury. The applicants have appealed and the hearing is to be held at Lymington…
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Multi million pound Firle footpath ploughed up again
Yet again, the Firle Estate has ploughed up a path for which it gets a huge subsidy to keep open. The path, which runs south from the Barley Mow Pub at Selmeston, is one of the reasons that the Firle estate gets millions of pounds worth of Inheritance Tax relief. Until the Open Spaces Society…
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Hotel extension threatens Chiltern common
We have objected to a planning application which could threaten the lovely Ibstone Common in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Bucks. The owner of The Fox Country Hotel in Ibstone has applied to Wycombe District Council for permission to extend the premises, to include a flexible restaurant and covered canopy which can…
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