We welcome designation of Lake District as World Heritage Site
As Britain’s leading pressure-group for open spaces and common land, we welcome the announcement that the Lake District National Park will be added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The society’s chairman, Graham Bathe(1), said: ‘This announcement brings the fullest recognition that the Lake District is a cultural landscape of global importance, forged by the interplay…
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London Council in ‘unprecedented’ move to exploit open space
A London Council has made an ‘unprecedented’ move to make money out of holding events on a flagship open space. Lambeth Council’s planning committee on Tuesday evening (4 July) gave blanket approval to a 110-day schedule of music festivals and other events on the 35-hectare half of Clapham Common it owns. The Town and Country…
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We criticise new Ordnance Survey map of greenspaces
As Britain’s leading pressure-group for open spaces, we say that today’s launch of a new ‘comprehensive map of greenspaces’(1) fails to deliver the Government’s commitment to map ‘all open-access green space’. The Ordnance Survey has announced the publication of a database of greenspaces in Great Britain. The database is offered via a mapping tool online,…
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We deplore power-lines on Bridgend common
We are disappointed that Welsh ministers have approved an application from Western Power Distribution to site an overhead electricity line, with 16 poles, on a South Wales common. The proposed electricity line will run for more than a mile across Mynydd Llangeinwyr common, the upland between Cwm Garw and Cwm Ogwr Fawr about six miles…
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Lambeth Council’s plan threatens Clapham Common
Lambeth Council is proposing to give itself unprecedented powers to intensify and institutionalise the commercial exploitation of a flagship open space. By giving blanket approval for music festivals and other events to be held on the 35-hectare half of Clapham Common it owns, Lambeth Council will be driving a coach and horses through legislation, designed…
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Circuit of Wales racetrack abandoned: common land saved
We are relieved that, following the refusal of £210 million in backing from the Welsh Government, the Circuit of Wales motor-race track will apparently not now be built on a square mile of common land on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The Open Spaces Society, with the Brecon Beacons Park Society, British…
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Colan bridleway saved
We are delighted that Cornwall Council has rejected two planning application to station a total of 91 residential-park dwellings on land close to a public bridleway and common land, at Quintrell Downs, Colan, north Cornwall. The new residents would have been forced to drive along the bridleway to gain access to the A392 road to…
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A commons’ conference companion
The Countryside and Community Research Institute of Gloucester University (CCRI) has published a Commons e-book which is a compilation of blogs written at or about the biennial global conferences of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). You can download it here. The book is written by John Powell and Chris Short…
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We fight plan to deregister part of Leigh Common, Wimborne
We have objected to plans by Gleeson Developments Ltd to strike part of Leigh Common, east Wimborne in Dorset, from the common-land register. The developers want to build an access-road across the common to serve a new housing development on land south of Leigh Road which crosses the common. It also wants to widen the…
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New chance to rescue lost commons in Wales
On 5 May 2017, for the first time in 47 years, the public can claim ‘lost’ commons in Wales. The Welsh Government will bring into force legislation which ensures that any commons which failed to make it to final registration under the Commons Registration Act 1965 can now be rescued. We are delighted at this…
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