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…
Read MoreSigned, sealed, delivered! Public footpaths signposted in memory of Gloucestershire benefactor
Gloucestershire County Council’s public rights of way team has recently completed the replacement and repair of numerous footpath signs in parishes around Cheltenham. These include Andoversford, Sevenhampton, Stoke Orchard and Winchcombe. The work was made possible by the Bradbury Bequest, a fund which was established in 1959 on the death of Herbert Lucas Bradbury, a…
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We welcome Welsh Government’s proposals for greater access rights
We are delighted that the Welsh Government is proposing an increase in public-access opportunities in Wales. The society has responded to the Welsh Government’s consultation, ‘Taking Forward Wales’s Sustainable Management of Natural Resources’. Chapter 4 is about access to the outdoors. We welcome proposals for legal access to coast and cliff and for greater access…
Read MoreDate on which orders under section 119 of the Highways Act 1980 come into effect
Herefordshire Council made a diversion order for Lyonshall footpath LZ3 (part) which was contested and went to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS). After written representations the order was confirmed. The Open Spaces Society subsequently wrote to PINS to point out that the inspector had confirmed a defective order. We considered the order to be defective in…
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Walkers urge Wycombe councillors not to close important town-path
We are dismayed that Wycombe District Council officers are recommending to the High Wycombe Town Committee on 3 October that it should support the closure of part of a valuable footpath in the town centre. This is despite objections from influential organisations representing walkers. The Town Committee makes a recommendation to the Cabinet Member for…
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We call for duty on local authorities to protect parks and green spaces
We are concerned that public parks are increasingly threatened by commercial activities and that the government’s response to the House of Commons’ Communities and Local Government Select Committee report into the future of parks and green spaces does not adequately address this. The society had argued to the committee that it should recommend a statutory…
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We welcome greenspace plan for Kendal’s New Road common
STOP PRESS 31 AUGUST 2017: We are pleased to report that on 30 August the South Lakeland District Council’s cabinet unanimously approved the scheme for the restoration of New Road Common. We are delighted that South Lakeland District Council in Cumbria proposes to reinstate Kendal’s New Road common as a green space. For many years this…
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