Cumbrian commons face biggest threat since enclosure movement
Local and national organisations (1) are campaigning to stop the Ministry of Defence from destroying a vast area of Cumbria’s cultural history. The MoD wants to deregister three large upland commons (2) and turn them into private land. Objectors say the deregistration would be unlawful and flies in the face of undertakings made by the…
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Powys beauty-spot wind turbines rejected
Powys County Council’s Planning Committee has rejected plans for seven wind-turbines at Llandegley, five miles east of Llandrindod Wells, Powys. The society was among numerous objectors to the proposal. Geoff Sinclair of Environmental Information Services, spoke on behalf of 55 local objectors at the planning meeting on Thursday (27 April). The councillors, with only one…
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Government corrects its breach of EU laws by giving extra protection to common land
We have welcomed the Government’s decision to apply environmental impact assessment (EIA)¹ to common land.² The society led the campaign to change the regulations so as to protect common land. New regulations were laid before parliament on 25 April and take effect on 16 May. In future, works on common land—typically to erect fencing—will have…
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We question legality of planned wind-turbines in unique Powys beauty-spot
We have slated plans for seven wind-turbines in the quiet countryside five miles east of Llandrindod Wells, Powys. The application, first submitted by Hendy Wind Farm Ltd in 2014, comes before Powys County Council’s planning committee on Thursday 27 April. We have written a further letter to the planning committee. We say that if the…
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Development next to Welsh Newton common, Herefordshire
We have objected to a planning application which could have a damaging effect on Welsh Newton common in south Herefordshire. The plan is to convert the redundant Methodist chapel to provide additional accommodation to the owners of Primrose Cottage next door, and to erect a garage at Primrose Cottage. The properties are immediately adjacent to…
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Our call for council candidates in Wales to pledge support for paths and spaces
We have urged our members in Wales to contact their council candidates for the local-government elections on 4 May and ask for candidates’ support for public paths, open spaces, common land and village greens. We refer to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and its seven goals.¹ The Act requires there to be…
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Post Brexit: we want more access and better landscapes
‘We must make sure post-Brexit agricultural payments are used to improve public access and the landscape, so that places like the South Downs National Park will benefit.’ So said our general secretary Kate Ashbrook at the rally to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the South Downs National Park, in Midhurst, West Sussex on Saturday 15…
Read MoreWe fight for Trimpley Green, Kidderminster
We have called on Worcestershire County Council to reject an application to deregister part of Trimpley Green¹, common land near Kidderminster. The application² was made to the council in July 2016, in relation to land east of the pond on the Habberley road. The application suggests that the land to be deregistered is part of…
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Track-threat to Naphill Common, Bucks
We have objected to a planning application adjacent to Naphill Common in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The proposal is to erect three houses in place of one at Heatherlands on Downley Road. Naphill is about three miles north-west of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. The society is concerned that the development requires a…
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Unfair land-swap at Gorseinon, Swansea
Persimmon Homes wants to swap an area of Mynydd Garngoch Common at Gorseinon, north-west of Swansea. The plan is to strike 0.71 hectares of common land from the register and use it for development, replacing it with 0.81 hectares of land which we and others believe to be inferior. Persimmon says that it needs the…
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