It’s time to complete unfinished business on commons and greens
Our call to government on the twentieth anniversary of landmark legislation We are marking the twentieth anniversary of the Commons Act 2006 by urging the government to complete the job this landmark legislation began for protecting these vital green areas. The Commons Act 2006 won royal assent on 19 July 2006. The society hailed the Act as…
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What will government’s plans for nature provide for public access?
We have questioned what the government’s plan to protect 30 per cent of England for nature will do for public access. The society welcomes the government’s commitment to provide funding, particularly for protected landscapes, to restore nature, and notes that it also promises to ‘improve access to green space’. The government statement says that ‘the country’s new national forests are a key part of that’. Says…
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Two beauty-spot commons in Cornwall saved
We are celebrating the quashing of an inspector’s two decisions to refuse to register new commons in Hayle, Cornwall. On 30 December 2020, two applications were made to register common land, one by Tomas Hill in relation to 99 hectares of tidal land at Hayle Estuary, and another in relation to 54 hectares of land at Hayle Towans with Tomas Hill acting for the applicant. The applications were made under the Commons…
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‘Deeds, not words’
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, urges the government to keep up the Labour tradition of legislation for public access in town and country. Jess Phillips, resigning on 12 May as Safeguarding Minister, summed it up well. She wrote to the Prime Minister: ‘Every Labour government in my and my family’s lifetime has forged progress that…
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Path protectors celebrate reopening of blocked Cornish footpath
The Ramblers and the Open Spaces Society are delighted to have achieved the reopening of a severely blocked public footpath, with broken clapper-bridge, in the parish of St Buryan Lamorna Paul, 3.5 miles south of Penzance in Cornwall. The half-mile path runs parallel to the England Coast Path/South West Coast Path, near Kemyel Crease nature reserve. The path, which had been inaccessible for several decades, is breath-taking, affording panoramic views of the coast, contouring the…
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New greens celebrated at Dorchester on Thames
With residents of the Oxfordshire village of Dorchester on Thames, we have celebrated the erection of plaques on the new village greens at Dyke Hills and Day’s Lock Meadow. The greens were the subject of an intense battle ten years ago when the then owner of Bishops Court Farm fenced off the land and barred local people from exercising their customary rights…
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Our nine-point plan for the new Senedd
We have sent our nine-point plan for the new Senedd to our members in Wales to use when speaking to their candidates in the forthcoming election. Here is the manifesto. (Cymraeg yma) ________________________________________________ The opportunity for people to enjoy open spaces and paths, for their relaxation, health, well-being, and appreciation of nature, has never been…
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New planning policy threatens access to nature
‘The government’s proposed planning policy will strike a fatal blow to the creation of new village greens and does nothing to safeguard and improve people’s vital access to nature.’ So declares Helen Monger, one of our case officers. The society, which is Britain’s oldest national conservation body, has responded to the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government’s consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework. …
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Our new activist in Wiltshire
We have appointed Becky Dymond as our local correspondent in north-west Wiltshire. Becky takes on four parishes (Biddestone, Box, Colerne, and North Wraxall) where she will respond to proposals to alter the routes of public rights of way, assist in claiming paths for the definitive map, and defend commons, greens, and other open spaces for people to enjoy. Becky is a horse-rider and is out riding around the countryside…
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We call on health secretary to make public access a reality
We were delighted to learn that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, enjoys walking. Consequently, we have called on him to expedite the promised green paper on access to nature. Wes Streeting told The Observer (21 December) that he enjoys ‘the occasional solitary walk’ which allows him to ‘“decompress” from…
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