Latest News

User groups save Gloucestershire highway 

November 6, 2023

A precious public ‘green road’ has been protected by user groups combining efforts to resist Gloucestershire County Council’s application to a magistrates’ court to extinguish public rights[1] over Hanover Green Road[2]  in the parish of Redmarley D’Abitot. Cheltenham magistrates found the track to be necessary for the public to use, particularly on foot and by…

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Coffey kowtows to landowners and destroys public-path consensus

October 25, 2023

We are dismayed that the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, has destroyed the 2010 consensus for the future of public paths. This consensus was forged by a stakeholder working group (SWG) set up to advise government. It is composed of experienced members reflecting the interests of users, local authorities, and landowners. Dr Coffey has cherry-picked from…

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We win recorded route in East Sussex 

August 18, 2023

We are celebrating the addition of a 2.3-kilometre restricted byway to the official map of public paths in East Sussex.  The route was claimed, based on historical evidence, by our local correspondent for Lewes, Chris Smith.    The path runs from Robin Post Lane in the north (to the west of the A27 between Hailsham and…

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Time for a new manifesto for public access

April 24, 2023

‘It is time for a new manifesto for public access in town and country,’ said Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary. Kate was giving the keynote speech at the event to mark the 91st anniversary of the mass trespass on Kinder Scout on 24 April 1932.  The celebrations were held at Hayfield village hall, Derbyshire, at…

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Kingsmead Field, Kent 1

Government’s lost chance to achieve levelling up

February 27, 2023

We have lamented the government’s failure to equalise the provision of green spaces for all.  Responding to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the society sets out its priorities for government in a five-point plan. The society wants to see: 1       an improvement in the process…

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Access at the heart of land-use policy

December 13, 2022

On 4 July our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, and the Ramblers director of advocacy and engagement, Tom Platt, gave evidence to the House of Lords Land Use in England Committee.  They focused on the many benefits of greater public access, its lack of a home in government, and the potential for access to be central to…

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Our new campaigner in Buckinghamshire’s former Chiltern district

November 28, 2022

We have appointed Aidan Harris as our local correspondent for the former Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire. On behalf of the society, Aidan will champion public paths, and commons, greens and other open spaces in his patch.  He will respond to proposals to alter the routes of public paths and advise the society and its members…

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Autumn crisis

October 26, 2022

Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook reflects on the current attack on the environment. ‘… now it is time unequivocally to act’ wrote Louis MacNeice in Autumn Journal in 1938.  And so it is in this autumn, when government has suddenly made a full-frontal onslaught on the environment, nature, and our enjoyment of them. First there…

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Chas Townley on Rodborough Common

Our new activist in Gloucestershire

October 3, 2022

We have appointed Chas Townley as our local correspondent for Stroud District in Gloucestershire. Chas lives in Stroud and is a retired social-housing manager and former Stroud District and Town councillor.  He has been working on the registration of unrecorded rights of ways in Stroud and surrounding parishes.  As a result, 27 applications have been…

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Blackbushe aerodrome remains a common

April 28, 2022

We have welcomed the decision of the supreme court not to grant leave to appeal against a decision that Blackbushe aerodrome should remain registered as common land.   The aerodrome lies on Yateley Common in Hampshire. It was established as a temporary wartime measure.[1] It is now operated by Blackbushe Airport Limited (BAL). Yateley Common,…

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