Kendal’s New Road Common Should Be Green Space Not Car Park
We have objected to plans to reinstate an unlawful car park on New Road Common, Kendal in Cumbria. Mr David Fone has applied to the Secretary of State for Environment, under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006, for consent for works on common land. Mr Fone is a private individual and the land is…
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Our Treasured Landscapes
We shall be submitting evidence to the government’s review of England’s designated landscapes; this nicely coincides with their seventieth anniversary next year. Rydal Water, Lake District On 27 May the environment secretary Michael Gove launched a review of the national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs), to be led by author and journalist Julian…
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Beef Up The Bill
In her Opinion article in the autumn issue of Open Space magazine, our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, writes about the Agriculture Bill. Last summer the Dartmoor Society (a voluntary body) hosted a visit to Gidleigh Common on north-east Dartmoor. Those present were shocked to see the land there smothered in purple moor-grass and gorse, where once there had been…
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John Underhill-Day, 1943-2018
Kate Ashbrook writes: We are sad to report the untimely death of John Underhill-Day at the age of 74. He was an excellent all-round naturalist with expertise in common land, and a good friend to the society. John was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and educated at Lancing College in West Sussex, which he hated.…
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We call for greater protection of green spaces in cities
We have welcomed the Welsh Conservative Party’s consultation paper Liveable Cities and its support for parks and green spaces and sustainable transport in cities. In responding, the society has made some new proposals. While it welcomes the paper’s recommendation that local authorities should be required to submit plans that highlight land which can be made…
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Support for public access is in the Agriculture Bill
We have welcomed the support for public access to and enjoyment of the countryside in the new Agriculture Bill which was published on 12 September. With the Ramblers, British Horse Society and other outdoor organisations, we lobbied for agricultural payments to be directed to providing more and better access to the public. The Agriculture Bill…
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Unique opportunity
With 54 organisations representing countryside, recreation and wildlife interests we have signed a letter to the Prime Minister, calling for the forthcoming Agriculture Bill to enable farmers to provide benefits to the landscape, public access and animal welfare. We welcome the government’s commitment to develop new farming and land management policies that provide public funds…
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Top priority needed for environmental principles
‘New environmental principles should apply to all public bodies as well as central government. Natural England should be given greater resources, clout and independence to enable it to fulfil new obligations to protect the environment.’ So we have said in responding to the consultation from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on…
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Government’s planning charter fails to protect open spaces
We are dismayed that the revised Natural Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which was published on 24 July, gives no additional protection to open spaces, beyond a tiny improvement in wording. The society had objected in the draft to the restrictive wording accompanying the designation of land as local green space (LGS). The draft stated that…
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Parks under unprecedented pressure
‘Our public parks are under unprecedented pressure, 50 years after a law which was intended to protect and improve the countryside close to people’s homes.’ So declared our vice-president, Paul Clayden, at our annual general meeting in London today (5 July). ‘This week [3 July] we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Countryside Act 1968,…
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