Latest News

Inspector refuses Adwalton-Common development bid 

March 18, 2025

We welcome the government’s refusal to deregister part of Adwalton Common at Drighlington, five miles south-west of Leeds.  An application was made to the Planning Inspectorate in April 2024 to remove 178 square metres of land from the register of common land.  This is adjacent to West Street.  The application was made with the apparent…

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Commons swap at Brow Moor refused 

February 28, 2025

We have welcomed the decision of an inspector to refuse an exchange of common land in Brontë country at Brow Moor, Haworth, Bradford.  Dennis Gillson and Son Ltd (Gillsons) applied to deregister 1.25 hectares of common land on Brow Moor, and replace it with 2.7 hectares about 2 kilometres further south.  The application was made…

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Parish council sets the record straight for North Yorkshire village green

October 28, 2024

Azerley Parish Council has persuaded North Yorkshire County Council correctly to record Bogs and Hodgson Top, at Winksley, five miles west of Ripon, as a village green rather than a common.  The land lies to the north of the road from Winksley village to Winksley Bridge, between the River Laver and the road.  In 1969,…

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Unlawful gates to go

April 22, 2024

Update – June 2024: We’re pleased to confirm that the gates have now been removed. You can read our latest update here.  In October 2022 the British Horse Society served two notices on North Yorkshire Council, under section 130A of the Highways Act 1980, for the removal of two pairs of large, ornamental gates. These…

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Saving Blackwell parkland

October 9, 2023

A campaign is on to register Darlington’s 18-hectare historic parkland as a town green. Our members Michael and Angela Green of the Parkland Heritage Network tell the story. The historic Blackwell parkland, on the south side of Darlington, is the last of the town’s Georgian pleasure parks, dating back to the 1700s. It first appeared…

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We help win the right result for Hamsterley Green, County Durham

September 28, 2023

We have welcomed a decision which will help protect Hamsterley village green, six miles west of Bishop Auckland in County Durham. Hamsterley Parish Council, the owner of the green, with the owners of Green View, a site to be developed for housing, had applied to the environment secretary for permission to deregister part of the…

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Harrogate Stray to be brought into the fold

January 24, 2023

We have applied to North Yorkshire County Council to register Harrogate Stray as common land. The application, which was made on 19 January 2023, seeks to reverse the decision in November 1966 to exclude the Stray from registration under the Commons Registration Act 1965. Says one of our case officers, Hugh Craddock: ‘The decision in…

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Loss of Longhorsley green refused

October 21, 2022

We have welcomed a decision to retain part of Longhorsley village green, which the parish council wanted to convert to a private driveway. Longhorsley Parish Council wanted to sell off around 54 square metres of Longhorsley green, in this case part of the verge of East Road, in the Northumberland village east of the junction…

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We help to protect Hamsterley green, County Durham

September 23, 2022

We have welcomed a decision which will help protect Hamsterley village green, VG45, six miles west of Bishop Auckland in County Durham. Hamsterley Parish Council had applied to the environment secretary for permission to deregister part of the green, which includes a ribbon of green verge along Saunders Avenue, to facilitate access to a new…

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Our new advocate in Northamptonshire and Ceredigion

September 28, 2021

We have appointed Gerald Davies as our local correspondent for the old Daventry district of Northamptonshire, and five communities in Ceredigion.  It may seem a strange combination but while Gerald lives in Brixworth, about five miles north of Northampton, his heart is in mid Wales. Gerald was raised on a farm in mid Wales and…

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