Our VP Edgar Powell retires from Worcestershire LAF
Edgar Powell, our vice-president and local correspondent for Worcestershire and part of Herefordshire, has retired from Worcestershire Local Access Forum (LAF) on which he has served for ten years, six of them as chairman. The LAF made a presentation to Edgar on 14 March. Its chairman, Gerry Taggart, paid tribute to him: ‘The LAF was…
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Two new greens are registered in Kent for local people to enjoy
Two new village greens have been registered in Kent: Four Acres Green in East Malling and Willow Road Green in Larkfield. Now they are protected for ever more. Four Acres Green was set aside as a play area when the council estate was built in the 1960s. It has been used for informal recreation ever…
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Village green at West Beach, Newhaven, returns to court
The argument that West Beach at Newhaven, East Sussex, is a village green which should be reopened for public access is to be heard in the Court of Appeal starting tomorrow (26 February). Newhaven Town Council, which applied to register the land as a green in 2008, has appealed against the High Court ruling in…
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Last chance to grab your greens – do it now!
Our new-year message. We have made a last-minute call to communities to apply to register land as town or village greens. The government’s Growth and Infrastructure Bill, currently in the House of Lords, emasculates the process. The government falsely claims that greens registration is a barrier to development and wants to stop this. Clause 14…
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Two new volunteers for the society
We have appointed two new local correspondents: Brian Cowling for Bedford Borough, and Chris Smith for Lewes District in East Sussex and Brighton & Hove City. Brian worked as a rights-of-way officer for Bedfordshire County Council and then Bedford Borough Council when it became a unitary authority. He enjoys walking, backpacking in the UK, reading,…
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Dismay at refusal of village-green status for Cranbrook’s historic meadow
We are sorry to learn that the application to register the Long Field, Cranbrook, Kent, as a village green has been rejected following a public inquiry last September. The 5.2-acre Long Field is at the junction of Angley Road (A229) and Quaker Lane on the north-east side of Cranbrook. It is crossed by two public…
Read MoreWe help to save Somerset paths
We have helped save two public footpaths at Oake Manor golf course, near Taunton in Somerset, from being moved to inferior routes. Our local correspondent Paul Partington was among the objectors at a hearing last month. The inspector’s decision, refusing the path changes, was issued last week. The existing routes run from Oake Manor in…
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Government’s plans for village greens a kick in the teeth for localism
We have slated the government’s plans for town and village greens in the Growth and Infrastructure Bill as ‘a kick in the teeth for localism’. We are calling on Members of Parliament to speak against clause 13 of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill which is due for second reading in the House of Commons soon.…
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Call to save England’s commons
The newly-formed Common Land Coalition of 16 diverse countryside bodies* has called on environment minister Richard Benyon urgently to implement the law to update England’s registers of common land. They have written to the minister, and a letter is published in The Times today (Saturday 27 October). Common land is suffering because there is no…
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Cramber Tor controversy
We have objected strongly to the application from the Ministry of Defence for the continuation of ‘dry training’ (ie not live firing) at Cramber Tor on south-west Dartmoor, for an indefinite period. We consider that the application conflicts with the statutory purposes of national parks and with the Dartmoor National Park Authority’s policies, particularly its…
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