Development next to Welsh Newton common, Herefordshire
We have objected to a planning application which could have a damaging effect on Welsh Newton common in south Herefordshire. The plan is to convert the redundant Methodist chapel to provide additional accommodation to the owners of Primrose Cottage next door, and to erect a garage at Primrose Cottage. The properties are immediately adjacent to…
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Our call for council candidates in Wales to pledge support for paths and spaces
We have urged our members in Wales to contact their council candidates for the local-government elections on 4 May and ask for candidates’ support for public paths, open spaces, common land and village greens. We refer to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and its seven goals.¹ The Act requires there to be…
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Post Brexit: we want more access and better landscapes
‘We must make sure post-Brexit agricultural payments are used to improve public access and the landscape, so that places like the South Downs National Park will benefit.’ So said our general secretary Kate Ashbrook at the rally to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the South Downs National Park, in Midhurst, West Sussex on Saturday 15…
Read MoreWe fight for Trimpley Green, Kidderminster
We have called on Worcestershire County Council to reject an application to deregister part of Trimpley Green¹, common land near Kidderminster. The application² was made to the council in July 2016, in relation to land east of the pond on the Habberley road. The application suggests that the land to be deregistered is part of…
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Track-threat to Naphill Common, Bucks
We have objected to a planning application adjacent to Naphill Common in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The proposal is to erect three houses in place of one at Heatherlands on Downley Road. Naphill is about three miles north-west of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. The society is concerned that the development requires a…
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Unfair land-swap at Gorseinon, Swansea
Persimmon Homes wants to swap an area of Mynydd Garngoch Common at Gorseinon, north-west of Swansea. The plan is to strike 0.71 hectares of common land from the register and use it for development, replacing it with 0.81 hectares of land which we and others believe to be inferior. Persimmon says that it needs the…
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People’s places
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, reflects on the recent report on parks and green spaces. Our parks and green spaces are at tipping point warns the House of Commons Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee in its report Public Parks. Having received 400 written submissions, including ours, and heard 27 witnesses, the MPs concluded obviously…
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Development next to Charlton Common, South Gloucestershire
Redrow Homes plan a major development next to Charlton Common in South Gloucestershire. They want to build 80 dwellings on the western side of the common. We have objected to the planning application because the development involves building an access track across the common. We objected to a similar proposal in 2012 and, in the…
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We fight electricity line across Bridgend common
Western Power Distribution intends to site an overhead electricity line, with 16 poles, on a South Wales common. The society has objected. The proposed electricity line would run for more than a mile across Mynydd Llangeinwyr common, the upland between Cwm Garw and Cwm Ogwr Fawr about six miles north of Bridgend. Because the line…
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Unfair land-swap at Therfield Heath Common, Royston
We have objected to a proposed land swap by the Conservators of Therfield Heath and Greens. The conservators wish to exchange 1.65 acres of common land off Sun Hill at Royston in Hertfordshire for the same area of woodland over a mile away. The proposed exchange is to enable the conservators to build eight dwellings…
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