An alternative Christmas present
Make Christmas 2017 the year you introduce your family and friends to the Open Spaces Society by giving membership gift vouchers. The perfect present idea for walkers, riders and cyclists who enjoy the outdoors and appreciate our amazing landscapes and public paths. It starts from just £3/month or £33 for a whole year for an…
Read MoreBooks make great Christmas presents
Do you know someone who loves the outdoors, perhaps enjoys walking, riding or cycling in our countryside, on coastal paths or in urban parks or green spaces? OSS has written, curated and sponsored a range of publications on topics including a history of public paths, how to register and protect a village green and an…
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We fight festival closure of Thames Path National Trail
We have objected to plans by the Henley Festival to close the Thames Path National Trail during the event which runs from Wednesday 11 July to Sunday 15 July 2018 Every year the Festival applies to Wokingham Borough Council, the highway authority, for the temporary closure of the path during the Festival, and the council…
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Court of Appeal rules against quiet enjoyment of London’s parks
We are disappointed that the Court of Appeal has upheld the use of London parks for major ticket-only entertainments. In its judgment today,(1) the court finds that Haringey borough council acted lawfully in hiring out part of Finsbury Park for the purposes of a major entertainment event, the Wireless Festival, in 2016.(2) The court rejected…
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Planning for the right homes in the right places
Working through Wildlife and Countryside Link, the society and eight other organisations including The Woodland Trust and The Wildlife Trusts have supported a response to the Department for Communities and Local Government on the consultation, Planning for the Right Homes in the Right Places. We believe the government’s ambition for housing must include the provision…
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We join fight to save Nutsford Vale park, Manchester
We have urged Manchester City Council to reject the proposed development of Nutsford Vale, a council-owned park on the borders of Longsight, Levenshulme and Gorton in south-east Manchester. We have backed our member, the Friends of Nutsford Vale, in opposing a proposed school building, sports hall, car-park and other facilities. The development, occupying about 5.5…
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Local councils have a vital role in creating and caring for open space
‘Local councils have a vital role to play in creating sustainable communities—and an important means of achieving this is through the creation and care of open space.’ So said our case officer, Nicola Hodgson, at the National Association of Local Councils’ annual conference in Milton Keynes on Tuesday 31 October. Nicola led a workshop, giving…
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The Great Outdoors Extra Mile award
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, has been shortlisted for The Great Outdoors magazine’s The Extra Mile award. She has been nominated for her work at the Open Spaces Society and the Ramblers. Kate has been in post at the OSS for 33 years. She is also vice-president and vice-chair of the Ramblers, a trustee of…
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We fight plan to grab Amble Braid village green for car-park
We have objected to Northumberland County Council’s plan to swap 4,400 square metres (just over one acre) of Amble Braid village green for a similar-sized but inferior area to the south. The society helped local people to register the land as a village green in 2009. Then it was under threat of a supermarket on…
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Newly-registered common at Brockdish, Norfolk
We have congratulated our member, Brockdish Parish Council in south Norfolk, for restoring a lost common to the common-land register. The council showed that an area of land on the south-west side of Common Lane had been wrongly omitted from the common-land register when the adjoining common was registered as CL125 in 1968 under the…
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