Dismay at new tennis-courts on common land
Three new tennis-courts and other works have been permitted on Therfield Heath Common in Hertfordshire. The Conservators of Therfield Heath, on behalf of Royston Tennis Club, sought consent from the Planning Inspectorate, under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006, for three new and three replacement tennis-courts, lighting columns, a log-cabin clubhouse and mesh fencing…
Read More
Our founder honoured on Hightown Common
We joined the National Trust and the Ringwood and Fordingbridge Footpath Society on 29 June in marking the restoration by the trust of an important seat on Hightown Common in the New Forest. We toasted the society’s founder, Lord Eversley, in whose memory the 40-acre common was acquired in 1929, the year after his death.…
Read More
Chailey Commons to be fenced
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has permitted East Sussex County Council to fence the Chailey Commons at North Chailey, two miles south-west of Newick.(3) The application, to which we objected, was considered at a public inquiry in March 2010, at which the inspector was Mr Peter Millman. The council applied…
Read MoreWe fight common-land swap on unique Staines Moor
We have objected to plans by Heathrow Airport Ltd to take common land and open space at Staines Moor in Surrey for the construction of a new rail-link. The promoters are offering land in exchange, but we consider this to be grossly inadequate. Staines Moor is a unique, medieval landscape, surviving as a previous wilderness…
Read MoreTop ornithologist condemns ‘crass’ action by council in Oxfordshire woodland
We are pressing North Hinksey Parish Council to drop its plans to make ‘improvements’ in the wooded part of the Louie Memorial Fields.(1) The council’s plans are not known in detail because they have not been divulged to the public, but among other things, the intention is to hard-surface the path through woods, a charming…
Read More
Protest walk highlights unfair bar to public access on Sussex Downs
On 12 June a band of 60 walkers joined the Action for Access protest walk to highlight the unfair banning of public access to open downland in the new South Downs National Park. The land is at Breaky Bottom, on the chalk escarpment between Brighton and Lewes in East Sussex, owned by Peter Hall of…
Read More
Plan to alleygate popular Luton footpath
Luton Borough Council plans to erect locked gates across the popular Beech Hill footpath. The path provides a direct and useful link between Dunstable Road and Ash Road, and to Beech Hill Community Primary School. In 2008 the council abandoned its plan to close the route, which was illegally blocked and, with the Bedfordshire Rights…
Read MoreProtest walk
Join the protest walk at Breaky Bottom, near Rodmell, East Sussex on Saturday 12 June. Meet at Southease station (on the rail line from Lewes to Newhaven and Seaford) at 10.35 am. Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, with many walkers, will be demonstrating against the exclusion of the public from a piece of freedom-to-roam downland at…
Read More
Maulden footpath reopened at last
The long-blocked Maulden footpath 28, seven miles south of Bedford, has at last been reopened for the public. Maulden footpath number 28 had been illegally blocked by a fence, animal shelter, heap of animal dung, gate, fence and brick wall. (2) Alan Bowers, the owner of land crossed by the path, built a house, number…
Read More
Faircote Hall fiasco
Wealden District Council has given retrospective planning consent for a riding arena at Faircote Hall and stud, Hartfield in East Sussex, and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has refused the society’s request to call in the controversial application. The arena had been built unlawfully, without planning consent. Furthermore, it crosses a…
Read More