Latest News

More Dartmoor land restored as common 

July 25, 2025

Another piece of the Dartmoor National Park in Devon has been registered as common land.  Planning Inspector Nigel Farthing has granted the society’s application to register as common about 82.25 hectares of part of Ditsworthy Warren.  The land, which is about 2.5 kilometres east of Sheepstor, is grazed and uncultivated. In 1968, a tract of…

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We celebrate Brent River Park on fiftieth anniversary

July 9, 2025

‘The Open Spaces Society warmly salutes the visionaries who founded the Brent River Park, and all who have made it the lovely space it is today.’  So said Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary, at the event, organised by the Brent River and Canal Society (BRCS), to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Brent River Park’s…

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We help to secure new common land at Yateley, Hampshire

May 27, 2025

We have welcomed a decision to take new land into Yateley Common at Cottage Farm.  Paul Freer, BA (Hons) LLM PhD MRTPI, a Planning Inspectorate inspector, granted the application of Falcon Propco4 Ltd (the owner of Blackbushe aerodrome) to deregister just over 14 hectares of aerodrome common land, and designate about the same area of…

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Plymouth City Council reverses decision to build on Wilmot Gardens

May 16, 2025

We are delighted that the high court has quashed Plymouth City Council’s decision to build five houses on Wilmot Gardens, a popular open space in Crownhill.  The society gave financial support to local campaigners fighting to save this space.  Unusually, when faced with court action from Frank Hartkopf, on behalf of local people, the council…

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Public right to walk on Clinton Devon Estate’s new commons

April 16, 2025

Today, 16 April 2025, the public gains the right to walk on newly-registered common land on the Clinton Devon Estates at Woodbury, east Devon.  This is thanks to an agreement between the estate and the society. In November 2023 Clinton Devon Estates sought consent under section 16 of the Commons Act 2006 to deregister 1.7…

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Commons deserve the highest protection

April 7, 2025

We have called for modernising legislation enabling the compulsory purchase of common land, while retaining the existing, vital, safeguard of Parliamentary scrutiny in exceptional cases. Responding to the Law Commission’s consultation on compulsory purchase[1], the society endorses the protection for common land and open space subject to a compulsory purchase order. Existing legislation, in the…

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Call for Gloucestershire councils to promote new greens

March 27, 2025

We have written to county and district councillors, and town and parish councils throughout Gloucestershire promoting the voluntary registration of open spaces as town and village greens (TVG) to benefit the public.    In his letter Chas Townley, the society’s local correspondent for Gloucestershire, says that ‘registration of open space as TVG means that it is…

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Bring on Wales’s new national park

December 20, 2024

We strongly support the new national park in north-east Wales. The society believes that the national park designation will benefit the splendid, varied landscape of this region, its wildlife and culture, and will help to promote responsible public access and enjoyment.  However, it has also called for the Welsh government to make sufficient funds available…

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Call for new ‘People’s Charter’ on 75th anniversary of revolutionary national parks and access law

December 16, 2024

Today (16 December 2024), on the 75th anniversary of royal assent of the revolutionary National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, the organisations which collectively promoted that law, call for a new vision from government. Hailed as a People’s Charter, the 1949 act was to enable all citizens, no matter their background, to…

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Government’s new planning policies give green spaces the cold shoulder 

December 12, 2024

We have expressed our fears for the future of open spaces in the government’s revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published today (12 December 2024).  Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘We called for legal protection and long-term maintenance of urban green space; standards for the amount of green space in development, and a duty on…

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