South Downs National Park anniversary celebrated
‘The South Downs National Park was achieved by a mixture of vision and persistence.’ So said Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, Britain’s oldest national conservation body, at a rally organised on 1 April by the Hampshire and Sussex Ramblers at Queen Elizabeth Country Park, Petersfield. The event was to mark the…
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Dismay that Newhaven beach is not a green
We are dismayed by the High Court judgment that West Beach at Newhaven in East Sussex is not a village green. Mr Justice Ouseley ruled (21 March) that the land did not qualify as a green because its use by local people for informal recreation was incompatible with its statutory use as a port by…
Read MoreDavid and Goliath battle for Harefield green
Next week is a further milestone in the campaign to save Harefield’s Medi Parc site as a green space for local people. On Tuesday (20 March) the public inquiry opens into the application by the Harefield Tenants’ and Residents’ Association to register the land as a village green. Harefield is a village on the western…
Read MoreWaltham Forest Council delays on its public-path duties
We have criticised Waltham Forest Council for failing to follow the correct legal procedures on public rights of way and for severe procrastination. The council has delayed adding a public highway to its official map of public paths (the definitive map), for more than five years. In 2007 local people submitted evidence that the footpath…
Read MoreDevelopment on West Sussex Common
We have objected to a planning application on Horsebridge Common, Ashurst, near Steyning in West Sussex. The application is to convert garages into a cookery-school and tea-room, but the building is on registered common land, which means it is unlawful. Works on common land need the consent of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food…
Read MoreWe call for reinstatement of Booker Common
We have objected to two applications to Wycombe District Council which affect registered common land at Willow Avenue, Booker, near High Wycombe in Bucks. The applications are for retrospective consent for a two-metre high fence and a certificate of lawfulness for use of land as a garden. The society has objected because the ‘garden’ is…
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Thames-side green space saved
We congratulate all those involved in the Save King’s Stairs Gardens’ campaign on their successful application to register this land at Rotherhithe as a town or village green. The group submitted the application to the London Borough of Southwark, the greens registration authority, in August 2011, with supporting evidence of local people’s use of the…
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Southborough Common is a jewel
‘Southborough Common is a jewel’, says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary. Kate visited the Kent common on 8 February and then spoke at a public meeting organised by Kent High Weald Partnership which is consulting local interests on the future of the common. ‘Common land is immensely special,’ says Kate. No other land type has…
Read MoreKent County Council restores public access to ancient site
Congratulations to Kent County Council, the access authority, for going to court to restore forbidden land to the public. The council took Mr John Button, owner of the historic Capel Battery on the clifftop at Capel-le-Ferne, near Folkestone, to the magistrates’ court, after he blocked off public access to the site. The land had been…
Read MoreDevelopment on scenic Surrey common
We are dismayed that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has granted Southern Gas Networks permission for a gas installation on Broad Street and Rydes Hill Commons, near Guildford in Surrey. Southern Gas applied to the environment secretary in 2008 to place a gas installation on the common, replacing an existing…
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