We slate Derbyshire’s plan to ‘shoot itself in the foot’
We have slated Derbyshire County Council’s plans to cut its budget for public rights of way and reduce the staff, significantly lengthening the time it takes to deal with path problems. We say the council is shooting itself in the foot. We have responded to the council’s questionnaire in which the council proposes severely to…
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Commons registration: a half century
Fifty years ago today, 5 August 1965, the Commons Registration Act became law. The Open Spaces Society had pressed for the registration of commons for decades, and it was one of the principal recommendations of the Royal Commission on Common Land in 1958. During the passage of the Commons Registration Bill the society secured a…
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We join forces with the High Wycombe Society for a celebratory Big Picnic on Wycombe Rye
OSS and the High Wycombe Society are jointly celebrating an important anniversary with a Big Picnic on Wycombe Rye on Sunday 9 August. It is 50 years since the Rye Protection Society, with help from the Open Spaces Society, saved The Rye from a road scheme. The event is free and open to all, from…
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Championing Chiltern commons
As the Chilterns Commons Project comes to an end, project officer Rachel Sanderson reflects on its achievements. In the south-east of England, a large number of small commons provide important recreational facilities for people in urban and semi-urban communities. Over the last four years, the Chilterns Commons Project, run by the Chilterns Conservation Board, has…
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Building on Anglesey common shows need for new local-authority duty on commons
We are dismayed that Anglesey County Council has refused to take enforcement action against unlawful works on registered common land at Glanrafon, Llangoed. In March this year we wrote to Mrs Dilys Lowe, the owner of common land at Glandwr Cottage, Glarafon, to ask her to stop building a bungalow on the common. Mrs Lowe…
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Lord Eversley’s message to members, 19 July 1915
One hundred years ago, on 19 July 1915 the fiftieth anniversary of the society’s foundation, our president and chairman Lord Eversley gave an address to the members. It is published in a 16-page booklet marked, for some reason, ‘confidential’. Here is a summary of what he said. On the 19th of July, 1865, fifty years ago…
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Giving Henley a hand for Entente Florale
At the invitation of our member Henley-on-Thames Town Council our general secretary Kate Ashbrook spent part of our 150th birthday on Sunday meeting the judges of the Entente Florale European competition. The council had entered for the award, having been nominated by a Britain in Bloom judge. The ten judges came from all over Europe,…
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Counting our battle honours
150 years ago on Sunday (19 July) at a meeting in a lawyer’s chambers in London, our organisation was launched: Britain’s oldest national conservation body. Without the society countless commons, green spaces and public paths would have been lost for ever. And there would be no National Trust, since it was the society’s founders who…
Read MorePrivate garage refused on Cornwall common
The Planning Inspectorate has rejected an application from Mr Robert George to build a domestic garage on registered common land at Carnkie, Wendron, near Helston in Cornwall. We were the sole objector to the application. The inspector, Mr Richard Holland, ruled that ‘the proposed garage, which is for wholly private benefit, will unacceptably interfere with…
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We condemn drive for ‘self-funding countryside estate’ in Surrey
We have condemned the cuts to national and local government services for countryside and public enjoyment. Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, was the keynote speaker at the annual general meeting of the Surrey branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) on 3 July. Kate was particularly critical of Surrey County Council’s intention to…
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