We rescue two lost commons in Hertfordshire
We welcome the decision of Hertfordshire County Council, the commons registration authority, to grant our applications to register as common two pieces of land about two miles south-east of Walkern near Stevenage. These commons failed to be finally registered during the three-year period allowed by the Commons Registration Act 1965. Part 1 of the Commons…
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Our latest local correspondents’ conference
Fourteen of our local correspondents (about one third) gathered, with our chairman Phil Wadey and five members of staff, at Hillscourt conference centre, on the edge of the Lickey Hills near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, for a two-day event. It was an opportunity for us to update each other on the law and guidance, and to…
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Common land saved at Bracelet Bay beauty-spot, Swansea
We are pleased that Swansea City and County Council has withdrawn its application to deregister [1] common land at Tutts Head, Bracelet Bay, Mumbles. This is a popular beauty-spot, and deregistration would have made the land vulnerable to development. The council had applied to itself to deregister the land on the basis that the land…
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An interview with the IASC
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, recently spoke to the International Association for the Study of the Commons to give a history of Open Spaces Society and our work. The article below appeared in the IASC newsletter. I am Kate Ashbrook, and have been the general secretary (chief executive) of the Open Spaces Society since 1984. …
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How to use MAGIC
Do you want to know about the location of sites of special scientific interest, the distance between two places on a road or footpath, registered common land boundaries or to measure the area of a plot of land – we could go on? But the answer is almost certainly to be found in MAGIC. MAGIC…
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Our stand against the grandstand
We save common land at Richmond Low Moor, North Yorkshire We have welcomed a court order setting aside the removal of common land from Richmond Low Moor following the society’s legal action. On 21 June 2021, North Yorkshire County Council granted an application by the Richmond Burgage Pastures Committee to deregister common land at the…
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A step up for England’s protected landscapes
The government has, at last, announced its response to the Landscapes Review in England. The review, led by journalist Julian Glover, was published in September 2019, more than two years ago, and made ambitious recommendations for the future of our national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty. In his foreword to the response Defra…
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Developer takes a wrong turn on Dunsfold Common, Surrey
We have welcomed the decision of an inspector to refuse permission for an access road across Dunsfold Common, six miles south-east of Godalming in Surrey. In her decision letter, inspector Helen O’Connor LLB MA MRTPI, appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has rejected an application by Kitewood Investment Ltd…
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Littleworth Road: A hare-laned proposal
We have condemned a proposal for works on Hare Lane Green [1] as hare-brained. The Luminous Property Group has applied to the Secretary of State for permission (for works on common land) to construct a raised and widened footway on Littleworth Road south of Claygate House. The footway would be bounded on the inside with…
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