Latest News

Campaigners condemn common-land swap for motorsport development

November 11, 2014

We have joined the Brecon Beacons Park Society and Gwent Wildlife Trust in condemning the Heads of the Valleys Development Company’s proposed land swap to enable it to build the Circuit of Wales motorsports development.  We are among those who have sent strong objections to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS). Because the development would take more than…

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We defend village greens in Welsh Government inquiry

November 7, 2014

We have spoken out in defence of village greens in Wales which, we say, are essential to the health and well-being of the Welsh population. We have sent evidence to the Welsh Environment and Sustainability Committee which is inquiring into the principles of the Planning (Wales) Bill. We are concerned that the Welsh Government proposes…

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Hendy wind-turbines conflict with law to protect public rights

November 5, 2014

The society has discovered new information which could jeopardise the Hendy wind-turbine development in outstanding countryside in rural Radnorshire. The land on which Hendy Wind Farm Ltd proposes to erect at least four of the seven turbines, near Llandegley Rocks, Llandrindod Wells, was inclosed by an order for Hendy Bank made in 1885 which provided…

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Peer’s development plan threatens Lake District World Heritage status

November 3, 2014

Jim Lowther, brother of the eighth Earl of Lonsdale, who is custodian of the family’s 117-square-mile estate, is planning to develop common land at White Moss on the A591 between Rydal Water and Grasmere at the heart of the poet Wordsworth’s countryside.  The Lowther estate stretches across Cumbria from Penrith to the Howgill fells—some of…

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We fight devastation of Radnorshire’s jewel

November 3, 2014

We have objected to two applications from Hendy Wind Farm Ltd to devastate Llandegley Rhos Common for a wind-farm on adjoining land. The company wants to build seven wind-turbines on land to the west of the common, obliterating the view to the striking Llandegley Rocks, five miles east of Llandrindod Wells. Because it intends to…

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Beauty-spot sun factory is rejected

October 31, 2014

We are delighted that plans for 29,000 solar panels on open fields at Forty Green, near Bledlow in Bucks, have been rejected by Wycombe District Councillors. The panels, with a substation and a variety of buildings, would have smothered 45 acres at the foot of the Chiltern escarpment. The campaign against the proposal was led…

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Newhaven Beach: landmark case for village greens to be heard in Supreme Court

October 31, 2014

The landmark case for the registration of land as a village green, at West Beach, Newhaven, East Sussex, is set to be heard in the Supreme Court on Monday and Tuesday next week (3-4 November). We are backing our member, Newhaven Town Council, the applicant for the village green. The council applied to register the…

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Secretary of State to consider revoking planning permission to build on Dundonald Rec, Merton

October 28, 2014

We were represented at a meeting with Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, at the House of Commons on Monday 27 October in support of our member, Protect Dundonald Rec Campaign Group. The campaigners for Dundonald Rec asked the Minister to exercise his power to revoke the planning permission granted by…

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Path to Ramsgate Harbour confirmed

October 20, 2014

The society is delighted that a new public highway has been recorded at Ramsgate harbour in Kent. The route runs between Madeira Walk and the lower esplanade at the harbour via a flight of steps and a tunnel. The society’s local correspondent for Thanet, Gordon Sencicle, backed the claim. Because there was an objection, the…

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Hampshire County Council to stop public from claiming rights on its land

October 17, 2014

We are dismayed that Hampshire County Council, the greens registration authority, is posting notices on all its countryside sites to prevent people from registering the land as a village green or claiming public paths there. The county council has written to all the parish clerks in Hampshire to warn them that the notices are going…

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