Lin Ostrom, commons champion (1933-2012)
We are deeply saddened at the death of international commons champion and Nobel prizewinner Elinor (Lin) Ostrom on 12 June. Lin was the first and only woman to win the Nobel prize for economics. This was in 2009 for her ground-breaking work on commons. She challenged the popular notion, ‘Tragedy of the commons’, that depletion…
Read More
Kinder 80 – celebrating the trespass
The Open Spaces Society will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass which took place on 24 April 1932. Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook is speaking at the launch event on Tuesday 24 April and the society has contributed to the programme. Says Kate: ‘There is nothing like the right to…
Read More
Milestone court-ruling: cattle-grids on public paths
We are delighted with the successful outcome to Alan Kind’s appeal to the High Court, to clarify whether or not a council can lawfully authorise a cattle-grid across the full width of a footpath or bridleway. This decision will provide additional protection for our public paths and better safety for the people using them. Capheaton…
Read More
Cattle-grid blocks bridleway
On 14 March 2012, in a useful judgment for path defenders, two high court judges ruled that a cattle-grid cannot be authorised to block the whole width of a footpath or bridleway—Kind v Northumberland County Council [2012] EWHC 603 (Admin). Capheaton bridleway 11, 18 miles north-west of Newcastle upon Tyne, was recorded as a public…
Read More
South Downs National Park anniversary celebrated
‘The South Downs National Park was achieved by a mixture of vision and persistence.’ So said Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, Britain’s oldest national conservation body, at a rally organised on 1 April by the Hampshire and Sussex Ramblers at Queen Elizabeth Country Park, Petersfield. The event was to mark the…
Read More
West Yorkshire green space saved in appeal court
We are delighted that the Court of Appeal today overturned a High Court judgment, so that Clayton Fields at Birkby, Huddersfield, will now be registered as a village green. The 6.5 acres of sloping, partly-wooded, green space was first registered as a green in 1997, under the Commons Registration Act 1965. The registration was overturned…
Read More
Thames-side green space saved
We congratulate all those involved in the Save King’s Stairs Gardens’ campaign on their successful application to register this land at Rotherhithe as a town or village green. The group submitted the application to the London Borough of Southwark, the greens registration authority, in August 2011, with supporting evidence of local people’s use of the…
Read MoreKent County Council restores public access to ancient site
Congratulations to Kent County Council, the access authority, for going to court to restore forbidden land to the public. The council took Mr John Button, owner of the historic Capel Battery on the clifftop at Capel-le-Ferne, near Folkestone, to the magistrates’ court, after he blocked off public access to the site. The land had been…
Read More
We call for recognition of Natural History Museum’s open space
We have backed our member the Kensington Society and other local societies(1) in calling for the council’s planning guidance to recognise the land surrounding the Natural History Museum as a local green space that is open to the public. We sent the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea a strong submission that the council’s Supplementary…
Read More
‘Get a green’—our new-year call to communities
We have called on communities throughout England to ‘get a green’ as part of the new neighbourhood planning system. This year communities throughout England will be developing their new neighbourhood development plans under the Localism Act 2011. This involves identifying where development should and should not take place. However, the law prevents development on land…
Read More