Our new ‘eyes and ears’ for north Dorset
We have appointed Keith Yarwood as our local correspondent for north Dorset. Keith will be our eyes and ears, keeping a close watch on paths, commons, greens and open spaces in the former North Dorset District Council area. Keith is also vice-chair of Stourpaine Parish Council. He is familiar with checking the state of public…
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Our last-minute bid to rescue lost commons
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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Secret deal on the Downs
We have supported the Downs for People in Bristol in its exposure of a secret deal between Bristol City Councillors and the Merchant Venturers to allow Bristol Zoo to continue to use the magnificent Durdham Downs for car parking until 2039. The society has opposed the parking for many years; the council’s renewal of the…
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Our Campaigning Works in North Cornwall
Our local correspondents are never ones to give up on a challenge! Lucy Wilson, our volunteer for north Cornwall tells the story of how Poundstock footpath 7 came to be fully restored to public use. ‘This is one that Bob Fraser (of Cornwall Ramblers) passed on to me in 2018 after a local resident got…
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We celebrate common land registration in Cornwall
We are celebrating Cornwall Council’s addition of 4.84 hectares of Carrine and Goodern Commons to the register of common land, thus securing the public’s right to walk here and protecting the land from development. The land is on the road from Penwethers to Pound Lane, three kilometres south-west of Truro. Common is land, originally, with…
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Cornish common restored
Thanks to the painstaking research of our commons re-registration officer in Cornwall, Tomas Hill, we have restored six hectares to the commons register. The land is at Trevellion Moor, on the west side of Bokiddick Downs and Lowertown Moor, a kilometre west of Helman Tor and three kilometres north of Luxulyan. The land consists of…
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Slow the traffic on unfenced commons
‘Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons on the Cotswold escarpment in Gloucestershire are unique—and we need to slow the traffic there.’ So declared Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary, at a public meeting called by the Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons Advisory Committee last week (20 February). ‘All common land is special because it is a remnant of the…
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Barratt’s backs down over future of Leigh Common, Dorset
We have prevailed in a High Court action to halt further development of Leigh Common. Leigh Common is a 9-hectare woodland and grassland nature reserve in Colehill, near Wimborne—the first in Dorset to be registered in 1967 and given permanent protection. In 2016 developers Gleeson Developments Ltd applied to Dorset County Council to deregister Leigh…
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Changes to Cornwall’s common-land register
We are delighted that a planning inspector has granted two of the society’s applications to restore parts of Cornwall’s commons to the register. These are Cosgarne or Twelveheads Common near Chacewater and Maenporth Beach at Falmouth. The grounds of the applications were that both areas should have become finally registered at the time of the…
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