Ancient Warwickshire landscape saved
We are delighted that Galley Common, Nuneaton in Warwickshire has been saved from housing development. We were among the objectors to a planning application from A R Cartwright Ltd for 130 houses with associated infrastructure on land north of Tunnel Road. Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council refused the application in December 2012, the applicant appealed…
Read MoreCharlton Common saved: developers withdraw road-proposal
Redrow Homes has withdrawn its proposal to build a 6.4-metre-wide road with a three-metre-wide pedestrian and cycle lane across Charlton Common in South Gloucestershire. The application was in connection with adjoining development. The public inquiry, due to start on 26 November, has been cancelled. The inquiry opened in April and was immediately adjourned. The room…
Read MoreRobert Hunter where are you?
‘Sir Robert Hunter would have been horrified by the government’s assault on our green spaces.’ So said Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary, on the centenary of Robert Hunter’s death on 6 November. Robert Hunter was solicitor to the Commons Preservation Society, as the Open Spaces Society was first known, some years before he went on…
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Sir Robert Hunter, 1844-1913
6 November 2013 is the centenary of the death of Robert Hunter, the society’s solicitor from 1868 to 1882. Robert Hunter was an early luminary of the Commons Preservation Society (CPS), as the Open Spaces Society was first known. He later became solicitor to the General Post Office and founded the National Trust. He was…
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Common land reclaimed at St Just, Cornwall
More than 100 hectares of common land at Carn Kenidjack, north of St Just in Penwith, Cornwall, have been reclaimed as registered common land, using legislation which is being pioneered in Cornwall (part 1 of the Commons Act 2006). Following a public inquiry in September, planning inspector Martin Elliott ruled that the land should be…
Read MoreWe object to Defra’s plans to justify development
We have objected to plans by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for ‘biodiversity offsetting’, by which alternative sites and habitats are provided to replace those lost through development. The society responded to Defra’s consultation Biodiversity offsetting in England, green paper. We believe that offsetting will lead to a net loss of…
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Inclosure revived
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, writes about the revival of the inclosure movement. A century and a half ago we thought the inclosures were coming to an end—about the time that the Open Spaces Society was formed. Indeed, I said as much in Japan recently to an international audience on commons, and commiserated with those…
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Brendon Commons, Exmoor, set to become first commons council under new law
We have backed a proposal to create a commons council for the Brendon Commons in the Exmoor National Park. This would be the first-ever commons council under the Commons Act 2006. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is consulting on whether to establish the commons council and will only do so…
Read MoreNew law could ban public from open spaces and paths
We have called on Peers to challenge provisions in the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill which empower local authorities to restrict people’s use of public spaces in England. The Bill has its second reading in the House of Lords on 29 October. The Bill enables a local authority to make a Public Spaces Protection…
Read MoreLincoln stalwart retires
Mick Commons has recently resigned from the Lincoln City Commons Advisory Panel on which he served as the society’s representative for nearly 30 years. Mick, a professional footballer, became interested in the commons when he kept horses there. The committee was established thanks to the society’s opposition to the city council’s Lincoln City Council Bill…
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