Chippenham Mead village green should be treasured not trashed
We have objected to an application from Monmouth Sports Association to erect a shelter on Chippenham Mead village green, Monmouth, in connection with the sporting activities there. The club has applied to the Welsh Government for consent for works on the village green. We are concerned that the shelter will intrude on the open space,…
Read MoreNew coastal access starts this summer
We are delighted that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced that the first stretch of the England Coastal Path will be open this summer. The first section of route starts at Rufus Castle in Portland and will end at Lulworth Cove, both in Dorset, and covers 32km of coastline along…
Read MoreAshton Vale green goes to High Court
We welcome the news that the High Court will review Bristol City Council’s decision to register only part of the 42-acre site at Ashton Vale, Bedminster, as a town or village green. The application for judicial review was made by the Save Ashton Vale Environment (SAVE) group. Bristol City Football Club wants to build a…
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Plaque to celebrate Dartmouth’s new green
Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary, unveiled a plaque on Sugary Green, Dartmouth in south Devon on Friday 9 December, to celebrate registration of the land as a village green last June, and its protection from development. When the land near Castle Cove was threatened with major development in 2009, local publisher Richard Webb formed the…
Read MorePlan to suburbanise Cornish coast
We are opposing plans which would suburbanise the small rural community of Trevone, near Padstow on the north coast of Cornwall. An application from First Step Homes to erect 15 dwellings at Trevone Farm comes before the planning committee on 9 November. This development will be an eyesore, a suburban excrescence in open country. There…
Read MoreGood news-bad news for Bodmin Moor
We are pleased that Community Windpower Ltd has withdrawn its application for 20 wind turbines on land adjoining the peaks of Rough Tor and Brown Willy, near Davidstow Wood on Cornwall’s Bodmin Moor. But we are worried that the company has threatened to submit a further application soon. Cornwall County Council’s planning committee rejected the…
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Open Spaces Society congratulates ‘pioneering’ commoners’ council
‘The Dartmoor Commoners’ Council has been a pioneer for commons management.’ So says Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society on the 25th anniversary of the first meeting of the Dartmoor Commoners’ Council on 18 August 1986. The council was set up following implementation of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 which, uniquely, also…
Read MoreTwo commons to be fenced despite our objections
We are sorry that the environment secretary has given consent for fencing, for 20 years, on two commons: Bricketwood Common, near St Albans in Hertfordshire, and Tregonetha Common, near St Columb Major in mid-Cornwall. In both cases the applicant, St Albans Council for Bricketwood and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust for Tregonetha, argued that it was…
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Dartmoor at 60—unfinished business
‘We congratulate the Dartmoor National Park on its sixtieth birthday—but there is still plenty of unfinished business.’ So declared Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary at an event on Sunday (31 July) at Meldon reservoir, near Okehampton, organised by Devon Ramblers to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Dartmoor National Park. About 150 people attended. Kate…
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Threat to path at Plympton school
We have objected to Plymouth City Council’s proposal to close the public footpath at Ridgeway School, Geasons Lane, Plympton St Mary, Plymouth. The council has backed an application from the school’s proprietor to use the special law for closing paths across school grounds. The council claims that it is necessary to close the path to…
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