Restore Fawley’s Walnut Tree pub for walkers
We have backed an application to Wycombe District Council to rebuild and restore the Walnut Tree pub at Fawley in Bucks. The site is at the hub of a number of public rights of way in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is passed by countless walkers, riders and cyclists. The pub closed…
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We fight damaging development in New Forest National Park
We are opposing an ugly solar ‘farm’ in the New Forest National Park. Last year the national park authority rejected a planning application from MTS Exbury Solar Ltd for a solar farm on nine hectares of land east of Lepe Farm, Exbury. The applicants have appealed and the hearing is to be held at Lymington…
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Multi million pound Firle footpath ploughed up again
Yet again, the Firle Estate has ploughed up a path for which it gets a huge subsidy to keep open. The path, which runs south from the Barley Mow Pub at Selmeston, is one of the reasons that the Firle estate gets millions of pounds worth of Inheritance Tax relief. Until the Open Spaces Society…
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Hotel extension threatens Chiltern common
We have objected to a planning application which could threaten the lovely Ibstone Common in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Bucks. The owner of The Fox Country Hotel in Ibstone has applied to Wycombe District Council for permission to extend the premises, to include a flexible restaurant and covered canopy which can…
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A visit to Ashtead Common
The Open Spaces Society has had a strong connection with the City of London Corporation all through its history, and we helped the city acquire many of its open spaces: Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest, Burnham Beeches and the Coulsdon Commons. It was therefore fitting that, as one of our 150th anniversary events, we should visit…
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150th anniversary of midnight raid to free Berkhamsted Common
The National Trust is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the great battle to save Berkhamsted Common, Herts. The common was freed from enclosure on the night of 6 March 1866. The National Trust is staging an exhibition and commemorative walk on its Ashridge Estate. The exhibition opens on Saturday 10 October at the visitor centre…
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We challenge Windsor & Maidenhead Council’s ‘path-improvement’ plan
We have challenged Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council for treating the new roadside footpath by Ray Mead Road north of Bridge Gardens as a permanent solution to the gap in the Thames Path National Trail beside the river bank. We were responding to the borough’s consultation on the updated Public Rights of Way Management and…
Read More‘Invisible fencing’ project at Epping Forest
This video describes the City of London’s innovative ‘invisible fencing’ project at Epping Forest developed since 2011. The project, supported financially by Natural England and in partnership with the manufacturer Lacmé, has enabled the re-establishment of free-range cattle grazing across the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The project has lowered the costs of re-establishing…
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Unlawful works on common land at Epsom
We have deplored the unlawful construction of a cycle track on registered common land at Fair Green beside West Hill, Epsom in Surrey. Contractors for Crest Nicholson, Galliford Try and Linden Homes have built a cycle track on the common, pre-empting the organisations’ application for consent for the works. We objected to the application. It…
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Reprieve for Cothill Pitt open space
We are pleased that the developer Martin Rowland has withdrawn his controversial plans to build on open space known as Cothill Pitt, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. We backed our member Save Cothill Pitt in fighting the plans. The site is open land within the green belt, which is greatly used and enjoyed by local people…
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