Lancashire beauty-spot windfarm rejected
We are delighted that Lancaster City Council’s planning committee yesterday (Monday) unanimously refused the third application from Community Windpower Ltd for wind turbines on Claughton and Whit Moor, Lancashire. The application was to erect 10 wind turbines on common land in the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We backed Stop Claughton Turbines…
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Ministers will shoot themselves in the feet if they slash England’s coastal access
Ministers will be shooting themselves in the feet if they slash the England coast path and its adjoining access-land when they announce government spending cuts tomorrow (26 June). The society was reacting to comments made by the environment minister, Richard Benyon, at the Royal Cornwall Show and reported in Farmers’ Weekly (14 June), that government…
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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Whitby village-green plan goes to Supreme Court
The Open Spaces Society and members of Helredale Neighbourhood Council (HNC) in Whitby, North Yorkshire, are delighted that the application to register Helredale playing fields as a village green will be heard in the Supreme Court. The news came last month that the applicants had won leave to appeal. The application for a green was…
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Tannen Land, Strete, is now a green
We are delighted that our member Richard Hacon and other local people have succeeded in registering Tannen Land, at Strete in south Devon, as a village green. Devon County Council approved the registration of the two-acre site last month. With advice from the society, Richard obtained evidence of use from local people and submitted this…
Read MoreNew bill threatens public’s rights to open spaces and paths
We are alarmed that the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which is to have its second reading in the House of Commons on Monday (10 June), could make trespass a criminal offence in public places in England. The Bill will enable a local authority to make a Public Spaces Protection Order on a public…
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Haslingden footpaths saved
We are delighted to have helped save two public footpaths which cross Helmshore Primary School’s playing-fields at Haslingden, Lancashire. Lancashire County Council, the landowner, wanted to move the paths out of the way. They were only added to the official map of public paths in 2011 and have been blocked ever since by the school’s…
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International accolade for OSS
We have won a prestigious international award for our work on common land. Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, will receive the first-ever Elinor Ostrom Award at a global conference in Japan next month. The award was established by 15 institutions in memory of the renowned academic expert on commons, Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University, who…
Read MoreThree projects short-listed for national Open Space Award
Three community-based projects, in Bucks, Newcastle upon Tyne and Surrey, have been short-listed for the Open Spaces Society’sprestigious Open Space Award. The Grange Area Trust has saved Widmer Fields at Widmer End, Hazlemere, near High Wycombe in Bucks from development. The trust, which was established with the aim of conserving the 16-hectare site as a…
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Our new activist for Cambridgeshire
We have appointed Mrs Alysoun Hodges of Ely as our local correspondent for Cambridgeshire. Alysoun was until last year the definitive map development manager for Cambridgeshire County Council, having worked on public rights of way for almost 22 years. During that time she initiated and led the county council’s ‘lost highways project’ which resulted in…
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