Expanding our freedoms
The Open Spaces Society has long campaigned for responsible freedom to roam away from public paths in England and Wales. The Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act 2000 went some way towards achieving this, but the rights were only for walkers and were limited to registered commons, and mapped areas of mountain, moor, heath…
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Boost for Neighbourhood Planning Groups
Following the launch earlier this month of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Planning for the Future consultation, funding in the form of grants made to community groups involved with shaping their local planning policy is set to almost double. Government grants to individual neighbourhood planning groups in both urban and deprived areas…
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Last chance for Forty Acres
Trudy Dean, chair of West Malling Parish Council, a member of the society, writes of the threat to a magnificent local open space. Forty Acres is a beautiful open area of gently rising farmland to the south of the A20 London Road in the Parish of East Malling and Larkfield in Kent. Confusingly running to…
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Taking people out of planning
With many other environmental charities, we have condemned the government’s proposals to speed up the planning process and reduce democratic involvement. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has published a consultation, Planning for the Future, with closing date of 29 October 2020. This proposes a total rewrite of the rules first set out…
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New charter for Wales’s open spaces
Today we call for a better deal for open spaces in Wales. We have published a charter and have written to Julie James, the Minister for Housing and Local Government, and all of Wales’s planning authorities. We want the government to introduce a national plan and standards for open spaces and to revise and update…
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New charter for open spaces
Today we call for a better deal for open spaces. We have published a charter and have written to Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and to all of England’s planning authorities. We call on government to introduce a national plan and standards for open spaces, and to place…
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Vocal for local
Our general secretary Kate Ashbrook considers life for the Open Spaces Society during lockdown. As lockdown began, I foolishly thought we would have time to catch up with all those long-deferred jobs. I was wrong: we have been busier than ever. Developers are not deterred by a pandemic: open spaces remain at risk, perhaps more…
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How do we protect open spaces closer to home?
The think tank, ‘Centre for Cities’, which focuses on improving the economies of the UK’s largest cities and towns, published an article at the start of our lock down period, ‘How easy is it for people to stay at home during the coronavirus pandemic?‘ It concluded that the provision of public open space, such as…
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Blackburn group win support of borough council for new Asset of Community Value
A much loved open space at Whitehall Road in Blackburn, has been awarded Asset of Community Value (ACV) status by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council following a campaign by the Whitehall Road Neighbourhood Group. The benefit of achieving ACV listing is that this becomes a material planning consideration, a matter that should be taken into…
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Welsh government allows closure of some paths and access land
The Welsh government has introduced emergency legislation which enabled certain bodies to close identified public paths and access land because they create a risk of spreading coronavirus. The bodies had to close the paths by noon on 25 March 2020. The bodies (known as ‘relevant bodies’) entitled to do this are: county or county borough…
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