We join fight against yet another Somerset solar-farm
We have objected to a planning application for a massive solar-installation close to Frome in the Somerset countryside. This follows our objections to similar schemes at Doulting and Kilmersdon, Somerset, earlier this year. We don’t object to all such developments but we do so when they adversely affect public access to, and enjoyment of, an…
Read MoreNew edition of our greens bible
We have published the third edition of Getting Green Registered, our handbook on how to register land as a town or village green in England and Wales. The book includes the changes to the law, made by the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 in April, which make it harder to register land as a green…
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Charlton Common inquiry adjourned
The public inquiry into a new access-road across Charlton Common in South Gloucestershire opened yesterday (9 April) and was immediately adjourned. The room at the BAWA Club, Filton, was overflowing with objectors from Southmead, Brentry and Henbury, who had not been consulted about the plans and who were angry at what was proposed. The inspector,…
Read MoreWe lend our voice to Cumbrian turbine fight
We have added our voice to the opposition to wind turbines near Killington Reservoir in Cumbria, and have sent an objection to South Lakeland District Council. The council is considering an application from Banks Renewables Ltd for three wind turbines and associated development, just north of Killington Reservoir (junction 37 on the M6). Junction 37…
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Race against time for Amber Valley residents’ green spaces
Residents of Amber Valley Borough in Derbyshire face a race against time to protect their threatened open spaces. The Growth and Infrastructure Bill, currently in the House of Lords, will outlaw applications to register land as a village green once it has been identified for development. If land has been used by local people for…
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Development is all
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, writes of the government’s attack on the law of prescription, and on our open spaces. Four days after the first reading of the government’s Growth and Infrastructure Bill, with its pernicious attack on town and village greens, I went to Westminster Abbey to celebrate the life of our early activist…
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Village green victory at Steyning, West Sussex
With the Friends of Memorial Playing Field at Steyning in the South Downs National Park, we are delighted that West Sussex County Council has resolved to extend village-green status to the whole of the Memorial Playing Field (MPF). The council took the decision on Tuesday 26 February, to register land adjoining the existing village green,…
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Open spaces need friends more than ever
‘Open spaces have never been more in need of friends.’ So declared Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary at a meeting of the London Green Spaces Friends Groups Network on Monday evening, 4 February, at City Hall, London. She was sharing her campaign experience of fighting threats to green spaces with friends groups from open spaces…
Read MoreWe join fight to save Reigate’s special countryside
We have objected strongly to the proposal in Reigate & Banstead Borough Council’s core strategy to demote the special landscape designation of green belt on the west side of Reigate in Surrey. The society, with many other objectors such as Save Reigate’s Green Belt, opposes the plan to redesignate as Sustainable Urban Extension the area…
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Open spaces to lose democratic protection
The government proposes to remove democratic protection from open spaces threatened with compulsory purchase. The House of Lords will debate these plans, which are in clause 22 of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill, on Monday (4 February). We are urging members of the House of Lords to oppose clause 22 because it puts open spaces…
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