Our call for council candidates in Wales to pledge support for paths and spaces
We have urged our members in Wales to contact their council candidates for the local-government elections on 4 May and ask for candidates’ support for public paths, open spaces, common land and village greens. We refer to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and its seven goals.¹ The Act requires there to be…
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Post Brexit: we want more access and better landscapes
‘We must make sure post-Brexit agricultural payments are used to improve public access and the landscape, so that places like the South Downs National Park will benefit.’ So said our general secretary Kate Ashbrook at the rally to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the South Downs National Park, in Midhurst, West Sussex on Saturday 15…
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We deplore further erosion of green-space protection
The government has struck a further blow to open spaces. We are dismayed that it has introduced additional measures which restrict the ability of local people to register land as a town or village green. The Housing and Planning Act 2016 contains new ‘trigger events’ which prevent the registration of land as town or village…
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Amenity organisations call for an immediate end to zoo parking on the Downs
National and local amenity organisations today called on Bristol City Council to put an immediate end to zoo parking on the Downs. In a joint statement, Bristol Civic Society, the Friends of the Downs and Avon Gorge, the Open Spaces Society, the Ramblers, and the Redland and Cotham Amenity Association said: ‘The Downs are one…
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Watton Copse, Driffield, is freed from unauthorised oil-tank
An unauthorised oil-tank on Watton Copse, Driffield, has been removed. This follows refusal of planning permission by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. The Open Spaces Society, Watton Parish Council and 42 local people opposed the application. A year ago, owners of a neighbouring property in Vicarage Close, Watton, had placed an oil tank in…
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People’s places
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, reflects on the recent report on parks and green spaces. Our parks and green spaces are at tipping point warns the House of Commons Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee in its report Public Parks. Having received 400 written submissions, including ours, and heard 27 witnesses, the MPs concluded obviously…
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Unfair land-swap at Therfield Heath Common, Royston
We have objected to a proposed land swap by the Conservators of Therfield Heath and Greens. The conservators wish to exchange 1.65 acres of common land off Sun Hill at Royston in Hertfordshire for the same area of woodland over a mile away. The proposed exchange is to enable the conservators to build eight dwellings…
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Public inquiry into diversion of Harrow School footpaths finishes
The public inquiry, which opened in January, into the diversion of two footpaths across Harrow School grounds, ended this week. It lasted for nearly six days instead of the scheduled three. The inquiry was prolonged partly because of the number of objectors to the scheme. These included the Open Spaces Society, Ramblers, Harrow Hill Trust…
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We call for speed limit on lethal road across common
We have joined the call for a 30-mph speed limit on the A44 road where it crosses Bringsty Common in Herefordshire. The present speed limit is 50 mph. The current speed-limit allows vehicles to travel far too fast along this dangerous, winding road, which risks the lives of those using the tracks which lead onto…
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Council rejects development on public copse at Watton, Driffield
East Riding of Yorkshire’s planning committee has today unanimously rejected a planning application for retrospective consent to use Watton Copse for an oil-storage tank and domestic purposes including car-parking. The land adjoins Vicarage Close in Watton, about five miles south of Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The council’s director of planning and economic regeneration,…
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