A new village green: the perfect Christmas gift for your community
We have called on landowners, particularly local councils, to consider dedicating land as a town or village green as the perfect Christmas gift to the community. Once land is registered as a green it is protected, by nineteenth-century laws, from development and local people have rights of informal recreation there. It is open to any…
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Roxlena: Long use and the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak
Cumbria County Council has successfully defended in the High Court [Roxlena Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v Cumbria County Council], its decision to make a definitive map modification order (DMMO) for paths in Hayton Woods, east of Carlisle, in response to an application previously made by local people on the basis of long use…
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We persuade Harwich developer to provide new town green
We have persuaded M Scott Properties Ltd to provide a town green, 160 square metres in extent, in exchange for part of a town green of the same area which it proposes to take for development. In July M Scott Properties applied to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for consent…
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An alternative Christmas present
Make Christmas 2017 the year you introduce your family and friends to the Open Spaces Society by giving membership gift vouchers. The perfect present idea for walkers, riders and cyclists who enjoy the outdoors and appreciate our amazing landscapes and public paths. It starts from just £3/month or £33 for a whole year for an…
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Doors open to rescue lost commons in Cumbria and North Yorkshire
On 15 December, for the first time in 45 years, the public can win lost commons in Cumbria and North Yorkshire and gain rights to walk, and possibly ride, on them. This could lead to a significant new area of land for public enjoyment. Cumbria and North Yorkshire are to be added to the list of…
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Kirkby Moor turbines must go
We are delighted that South Lakeland District Council’s planning committee has rejected an application to extend the life of the Kirkby Moor wind farm to 2027. The application was made by Innogy Renewables on behalf of Zephyr Investments Ltd. We objected because the turbines are a severe intrusion in a wild landscape, highly visible from…
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The search for lost commons
We have launched a search for common land which must be registered and protected. The Commons Registration Act 1965 required all commons to be registered but allowed only three years for this to be done. Some commons which were provisionally registered were subsequently struck off on spurious grounds. Now, it is possible, in the ‘pioneer…
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Conditional welcome to commencement of common-land provisions in Wales
We have welcomed the commencement of further provisions about common land in Wales—but have lamented the Welsh Government’s failure to communicate. The Welsh Ministers have made a commencement order(1) to bring into force provisions in the Commons Act 2006 about freedom of access to information in the commons registers, and about obtaining official copies of…
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Court of Appeal rules against quiet enjoyment of London’s parks
We are disappointed that the Court of Appeal has upheld the use of London parks for major ticket-only entertainments. In its judgment today,(1) the court finds that Haringey borough council acted lawfully in hiring out part of Finsbury Park for the purposes of a major entertainment event, the Wireless Festival, in 2016.(2) The court rejected…
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We fight plan to grab Amble Braid village green for car-park
We have objected to Northumberland County Council’s plan to swap 4,400 square metres (just over one acre) of Amble Braid village green for a similar-sized but inferior area to the south. The society helped local people to register the land as a village green in 2009. Then it was under threat of a supermarket on…
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