Mumbles headland is under threat
The Amusement Equipment Company Ltd (AMECO) plans to develop the headland and foreshore at Mumbles, west of Swansea. We have objected to the planning application which includes apartments, a hotel and entertainment centre and involves deregistration of common land on the clifftop. Not only will this development be an intrusion on the edge of the…
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New plan for unique Odiham Common
Hart District Council has published its ten-year management plan for Odiham Common in north Hampshire. (Click to read) The plan is the result of 18 months’ work by an advisory group,(1) and a significant investment by the district council. The 284-acre common, which is owned by Hart District Council, is a site of special scientific…
Read MoreOpen Spaces Society fights gating order for Hove path
The Open Spaces Society,(1) Britain’s oldest national conservation body, has opposed Brighton and Hove Council’s plan to make a gating order for Farman Street, Hove. (2) The council wants to lock people out of the street between 9pm and 8am, claiming that the route is associated with crime and anti-social behaviour. Says Kate Ashbrook, the…
Read MorePart of unique Galleywood Common lost for ever
Land at Galleywood Common, near Chelmsford in Essex, is to be sacrificed for industrial development. Galleywood is an ancient common which is mentioned in the Domesday Book and was at that time four times its present size. A four-day public inquiry was held last June into Chelmsford Borough Council’s proposal to swap part of Galleywood…
Read MoreBrick pillars on Chailey Common must go
Lewes District Council’s planning applications committee has rejected a retrospective application for brick pillars on Chailey Common, East Sussex, at its meeting on 13 October. The councillors threw out the application from the owners of White Cottage, Haywards Heath Road, North Chailey, because they considered the brick piers bearing the house name were incongruous in…
Read MoreLand swap for Runton Common
We are disappointed that the Planning Inspectorate has agreed to a land swap at Runton Common, west of Cromer on the north Norfolk coast, to enable Norfolk County Council to carry out highway improvements on the C293 Station Road over the railway. Because Norfolk County Council is to take, by compulsory purchase, registered common land…
Read MoreCommon land provides massive common good
‘In these austere times, we should invest in our unique resource of common land.’ So said our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, at an international symposium on the role of commons at Sheffield Hallam University on 16 September. ‘Commons are a remarkable survival from pre-medieval times, unenclosed and undisturbed through history. They also have immense public…
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Encroachments on Chiltern common
We have called on Chiltern District Council to take enforcement action against unlawful works on Layters Green Common, Chalfont St Peter, in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns. Willow Developments has planning permission to develop Willow Tree House, Layters Green, but the council has told the developer that it must first get consent from the Secretary of State…
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Finding Common Ground
We have published Finding Common Ground, the first-ever guide to how to recognise and take account of local-community interests in common land. The work was commissioned by Natural England, the government’s adviser on the natural environment. Read it here. Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary (who wrote the report with Nicola Hodgson, its case officer):…
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Excrescences on Chailey Common
Lewes District Council’s Planning Applications Committee has deferred determination of a retrospective application for brick piers on Chailey Common in East Sussex because it needs to investigate the matter further. The planning application has been submitted by the owners of White Cottage, Haywards Heath Road, North Chailey. They erected illuminated, brick piers with their house…
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