A commons’ conference companion
The Countryside and Community Research Institute of Gloucester University (CCRI) has published a Commons e-book which is a compilation of blogs written at or about the biennial global conferences of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). You can download it here. The book is written by John Powell and Chris Short…
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Jubilee Field at Boddington is safe
The Friends of Jubilee Field have succeeded in getting a village meadow recorded as an Area of Community Value (ACV), and thus saved for local people to enjoy. The 3.5-acre field is at Upper Boddington, ten miles south-west of Daventry in Northamptonshire. HS2 will run along the south side of the village, putting local green…
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Our manifesto for the 2017 Westminster election
This time, because the political parties are focused on Brexit, we have tailored our manifesto to secure the best deal for public access and enjoyment. Public money for public access The Open Spaces Society is seeking a pledge in each party’s manifesto that, in the new funding scheme for agriculture, public money is spent on…
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Cumbrian commons face biggest threat since enclosure movement
Local and national organisations (1) are campaigning to stop the Ministry of Defence from destroying a vast area of Cumbria’s cultural history. The MoD wants to deregister three large upland commons (2) and turn them into private land. Objectors say the deregistration would be unlawful and flies in the face of undertakings made by the…
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Powys beauty-spot wind turbines rejected
Powys County Council’s Planning Committee has rejected plans for seven wind-turbines at Llandegley, five miles east of Llandrindod Wells, Powys. The society was among numerous objectors to the proposal. Geoff Sinclair of Environmental Information Services, spoke on behalf of 55 local objectors at the planning meeting on Thursday (27 April). The councillors, with only one…
Read MoreHousing White Paper—a lost opportunity to create new green space
We have criticised the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Housing White Paper* for threatening to undermine Local Green Space (LGS). The society believes that LGS should provide opportunities for public enjoyment and well-being. LGS was introduced in the National Planning Policy Framework in 2012, but government has never defined it nor prescribed a process…
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Public-path victory over élite private school
Local residents, backed by the Open Spaces Society, the Ramblers and the Harrow Hill Trust, have defeated plans by élite Harrow School to move two public footpaths across its sports pitches, all-weather pitches and tennis courts. The objectors fought the plans at a six-day public inquiry earlier this year. The government inspector, Ms Alison Lea,…
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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…
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We deplore further erosion of green-space protection
The government has struck a further blow to open spaces. We are dismayed that it has introduced additional measures which restrict the ability of local people to register land as a town or village green. The Housing and Planning Act 2016 contains new ‘trigger events’ which prevent the registration of land as town or village…
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