Latest News

Protect the common land at Mumbles Pier

June 6, 2012

Swansea Council has granted planning consent to Amusement Equipment Ltd (Ameco) for the demolition of the existing storage shed and construction of a site office for Mumbles Pier. We objected to this because not only would the development suburbanise this attractive coastal area, but it was on registered common land and any works here would…

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Give more recognition to Wales’s unique common land

June 1, 2012

The society is concerned that the Welsh Government’s Green Paper, Sustaining a Living Wales, pays insufficient regard to the nation’s superb common land and landscape, and people’s ability to enjoy it. The society has submitted a robust response to the consultation paper, calling for greater recognition of these important features. Says David Bateman, our spokesman…

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Planning protection for commons and greens in Wales

May 23, 2012

In our response to the consultation Planning for Sustainability, we have called on the Welsh Government to give extra protection to commons and village greens during the planning process. We propose a compulsory question on the planning-application form, to ask whether the application will affect any common or village green. If the answer is yes,…

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We call for new Wales body to focus on commons, spaces and paths

May 9, 2012

We have called for the new single environmental body in Wales to focus on common land, open spaces and public paths. The society has responded to the Welsh Government’s consultation paper, Natural Resources Wales. This invites views on the arrangements for establishing and directing a new body for the management of Wales’s natural resources, by…

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New protection for common land in Wales

April 24, 2012

We welcome the new measures brought into force in Wales on 1 April. These will give better protection to all registered common land—more than eight per cent of the land area of Wales. Welsh ministers have enacted part 3 of the Commons Act 2006, which sets out the process for obtaining consent from the Minister…

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Kinder 80 – celebrating the trespass

April 20, 2012

The Open Spaces Society will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass which took place on 24 April 1932. Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook is speaking at the launch event on Tuesday 24 April and the society has contributed to the programme. Says Kate: ‘There is nothing like the right to…

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Four-mile fence on Brecon Beacons common land

April 5, 2012

We have objected to an application from the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority to retain a four-mile fence across open country in the heart of the national park. The fence was erected on common land as an emergency measure during the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001 and it should have been removed by 2006. When the…

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Tony Drake, path protector, 1923-2012

March 19, 2012

We are sad to report that our long-standing member Tony Drake has died aged 89. Tony was a walker and mountaineer; for decades he campaigned for public paths, especially in his home county of Gloucestershire and in Wales. Tony was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the only child of Leslie and Gladys Drake. He inherited the…

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Unlawful fence across Brecon Beacons commons must go

September 25, 2011

The Welsh Government has refused retrospective consent for a four-and-a-half-mile-long fence across common land in the Brecon Beacons National Park. The fence runs from near Pontsticill Reservoir in the south, crossing the hillside via Upper Neuadd Reservoir, passing just to the east of the famous summits of Pen y Fan and Cribyn and then cutting…

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Welsh government rejects damaging fencing on Cwmllynfell common land

September 14, 2011

The Welsh Government has rejected an application from Neath Port Talbot Council for fencing on common land adjacent to Bryn Road, Cwmllynfell, ten miles north of Neath. The council wanted to erect 1,223 metres of stock-proof fencing, with gates and cattle-grids, along the edge of Penlle’rfedwen and Mynydd Uchaf Common to prevent livestock straying into…

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