Unfair land swap on Cornish common
We have objected to plans to swap common land at Pendarves Woods Common, a mile south-west of Camborne in Cornwall. Earlier this year Mr Robert Weedon applied to the Secretary of State for Environment for retrospective consent for works on common land: part of a sand-school, parking areas and track, fuel pumps and tank, and…
Read MoreWe object to abuse of St John’s Lye common, Woking
We have responded angrily to Woking Borough Council’s consultation about car-parking on St John’s Lye Common, south-west Woking, Surrey. Local residents had complained about the inadequate parking after the opening of the new St John’s memorial hall and the council proposed to provide car-parking spaces on the common. The options are for the extension onto…
Read MoreWe welcome proposed commons council for Bodmin Moor
The society is backing a plan to create a commons council for Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. This would be the second commons council created under the Commons Act 2006—the first was established for the Brendon Hills in Devon in April 2014. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is consulting on whether…
Read MoreWe say ‘no’ to the Lowthers
The society has once again objected to renewed plans by the Lowther Estate to develop White Moss Common next to the A591 between Rydal Water and Grasmere in the Lake District National Park. Last year the estate applied for a visitor centre and hierarchy of routes at the existing car-park but the Lake District National…
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Chunks of the Lake District National Park to be sold
Update, 16 March 2015 Bidding closed on 12 March and the Lake District National Park Authority has published an update on its website. It reports that: We have identified new future owners for two properties (Longbridge, Portinscale and Lady Wood, White Moss) We are in discussions with a charitable body for one property (Blea Brows)…
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Historic Gloucestershire field is saved as a village green
We are delighted that our member, the Nympsfield Village Green Action Group, has succeeded in registering The Leaze in Nympsfield, six miles south-west of Stroud in Gloucestershire, as a village green. Mr Ian Crossland of the group applied to Gloucestershire County Council, the greens registration authority, to register The Leaze in 2009. At that time…
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Proposed ‘environmental trust’ is irrelevant
The announcement by the Circuit of Wales developers that they intend to set up an ecological trust to fund environmental improvements around the development site at Ebbw Vale is irrelevant. The society is to appear at the public inquiry on Thursday [19 March] in opposition to the developers’ proposals for exchange of common land. The…
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We call on landowner to stop destroying Anglesey common
We have called on Mrs Dilys Lowe, the owner of land at Glandwr Cottage, Glanrafon, Llangoed in Anglesey, to stop building a bungalow on registered common land. Mrs Lowe has planning permission for the bungalow but has been told by Anglesey County Council and others that the work is unlawful unless she obtains the consent…
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We celebrate our 150-year struggle for open spaces
We have published our new book, Saving Open Spaces, the story of our 150-year struggle for commons, greens, open spaces and paths. It is written by our general secretary for 31 years, Kate Ashbrook. The society was formed in 1865 as the Commons Preservation Society to rescue London’s threatened commons—Hampstead Heath, Wimbledon Common and Epping…
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Cock-up of Wales
Two years ago the society objected to the planning application for the Circuit of Wales motor-sports development on common land, just north of Ebbw Vale in south Wales. At that time the developer, the Heads of the Valleys Development Company, stated optimistically and inaccurately on its website that ‘planning permission is the final hurdle’. Although…
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