Our general secretary opens Nottingham’s historic town trail
On Sunday 26 September our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, will open Nottingham’s Victorian Town Trail. The five-mile route has been devised by the Friends of the Forest with Nottingham City Council to mark and celebrate the 130 acres of open space won by the people of Nottingham when land was inclosed under the Inclosure Act…
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Launch of website for lantern-slide archive
We have launched a new website for our unique collection of lantern slides. Our collection, at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), contains 19th-century legal-case papers, press cuttings and a thousand lantern transparencies of British landscapes from 1900-40. Some time ago a project was undertaken to digitise the lantern slides and instigate a 2020/2021…
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Winter Hill trespass a milestone, but still a long way to go
The Winter Hill mass demo in 1896 was a milestone in the history of public access—but we still have a long way to go.’ So declares our general secretary Kate Ashbrook, who will speak on 5 September at the 125th anniversary event of the Winter Hill mass trespass. Kate also spoke at the centenary event…
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We join Worthing Downlanders to celebrate public-access victory
Five years on, campaigners celebrated the success of open access to Worthing’s incomparable downland in the South Downs National Park. They held a reunion rally on Sunday 15 August and made a video which includes our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook. We backed the Worthing Downlanders’ campaign from 2009 to 2015, firstly to stop Worthing Borough…
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We support Climate Cymru – voices for Wales
Climate Cymru is a campaign working for meaningful, evidence-based and fair action to protect the Wales we love from the climate and nature emergency. The campaign wants to make sure the voices of ordinary people from all over the country are heard by the people in power. Climate Cymru is aiming to take 50,000 voices…
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Little comfort from updated planning policies
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has published an updated version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). There are six main changes but we are disappointed that the revisions do not reflect the submission we made on the consultation. Says our case officer Nicola Hodgson: ‘We remain concerned that the government’s…
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The Downs are for people, not for cars
A celebration of success after 25 years of campaigning On 15 July our general secretary Kate Ashbrook and case officer Hugh Craddock joined group member, Downs for People[1] (DfP), for a celebration of the success in its recent court case challenging the secret grant of a twenty-year licence for zoo parking. As well as putting…
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Pentyrch Community Council voluntary registration for Ael y Bryn
We have recently received confirmation from the town clerk at Pentyrch Community Council, Helena Fox, that land know as Ael y Bryn was voluntarily registerd as a village green in 2014 and we have some photographs below of this open space near Cardiff and the plaque recording the event – local people can now enjoy…
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Saving ‘the People’s Forest’ – a forgotten anniversary
This is a year of anniversaries to celebrate in the contests over open spaces around London; 150 years ago, and after long local struggles in each case, legislation was passed preserving Hampstead Heath and Wandsworth Common from development, campaigns in which the Commons Preservation Society (CPS, and the forerunner of the Open Spaces Society) played…
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150 years ago today – the story of the Wanstead Flats landmark demonstration
150 years ago today, on 8th July 1871, thousands of people gathered in Epping Forest to mount a protest. A campaign was beginning – one that the renowned environmental historian Oliver Rackham has called “the origin of the modern British conservation movement.” This campaign, to preserve Epping Forest and other commons from unchecked housing development…
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