Government misses the opportunity to protect open space
We have criticised the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for its lack of protection of open space. The ministry has recently consulted on a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), to which the we have responded. In particular, the society believes that the proposed new NPPF undermines the Local Green Space (LGS) designation…
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Post-Brexit funding for farmers must include support for public access and common land
We have called for post-Brexit funding for agriculture to include support for public access to the countryside. The society has responded to the government’s consultation, Health and Harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit, a precursor to the Agriculture Bill. The government has said that public money must pay…
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We welcome Lords’ call for more funds for public access
We are delighted that a House of Lords Select Committee has recommended greater independence and resources for Natural England, the government’s adviser on conservation, landscape and public access. Last autumn we submitted evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. We expressed our concern at Natural…
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The government’s 25-year plan for the environment
We are pleased that the government has at last published its 25-year plan for the environment. It has many fine ambitions, which we applaud, and now we should like to hear more about how the government intends to achieve them. And of course we are willing to help. Green spaces We particularly welcome the aims…
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Environment charities welcome 25 Year Environment Plan, but Environment Act needs to secure its success
The Open Spaces Society has joined other organisations represented by Wildlife & Countryside Link in welcoming the Prime Minister’s commitments on the environment and the UK Government’s long awaited 25 Year Environment Plan which is launched today. The plan covers England and the UK’s international environmental commitments. The environment and animal welfare organisations support the…
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It’s official: public access is a public good
We are delighted by the commitment from the Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, that ‘public access is a public good’ and should be part of the post-Brexit payment scheme for farmers. Michael Gove was setting out his vision for the future of farming at the Oxford Farming Conference on 4 January. He said that government will…
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A new village green: the perfect Christmas gift for your community
We have called on landowners, particularly local councils, to consider dedicating land as a town or village green as the perfect Christmas gift to the community. Once land is registered as a green it is protected, by nineteenth-century laws, from development and local people have rights of informal recreation there. It is open to any…
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Roxlena: Long use and the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak
Cumbria County Council has successfully defended in the High Court [Roxlena Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v Cumbria County Council], its decision to make a definitive map modification order (DMMO) for paths in Hayton Woods, east of Carlisle, in response to an application previously made by local people on the basis of long use…
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Planning for the right homes in the right places
Working through Wildlife and Countryside Link, the society and eight other organisations including The Woodland Trust and The Wildlife Trusts have supported a response to the Department for Communities and Local Government on the consultation, Planning for the Right Homes in the Right Places. We believe the government’s ambition for housing must include the provision…
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Paths to oblivion
Thirty years ago (3 September 1987) we were present at the launch of the Countryside Commission’s far-reaching policies and priorities for enjoying the countryside, writes our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook. Top priority was to have the entire rights-of-way network ‘legally defined, maintained and available for use before the end of the [last] century’ with up-to-date…
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