Unfair exchange at Beverley Westwood Common
We have objected to plans by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to swap land on Beverley Westwood Common for a small piece on the northern edge. This is to accommodate a cycle track across the common. The law (section 16 of the Commons Act 2006) requires any exchange of common land to take account…
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Our new activist for Wealden District, East Sussex
We have appointed Mr Brendan Clegg as our local correspondent for Wealden District in East Sussex. Brendan will be the society’s eyes and ears, keeping a close watch on paths, commons, greens and open spaces in the district and intervening as necessary. Says Brendan: ‘I am very pleased to be appointed as local correspondent for…
Read MoreNew Planning Practice Guidelines published
In a written statement on 6 March, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Planning, Nick Boles, announced the publication of the Coalition Government’s updated Planning Practice Guidelines. In his statement, Mr Boles refers to the government’s commitment to ensuring that countryside and environmental protections continue to be safeguarded and that power is devolved, not…
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Residents save Bucks green
Congratulations to our member the Penn & Tylers Green Residents’ Society in Bucks who have won a five-year campaign to register two verges as village green and have set an excellent example to other communities. The land consists of two, wide, roadside verges leading from the Hazlemere to Penn road (the B474) into Coppice Farm…
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Richard Harland, 1920 – 2013
We remember Richard Harland, our former vice-chairman who died aged 93 last November, and who made a quiet but significant contribution to commons and access. Richard Harland was a Quaker, a pacifist and campaigner, who loved beautiful landscapes and their history, and had a strong belief that people should be free to enjoy the countryside.…
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Welsh Government’s threat to village greens
We have responded robustly to the Welsh Government’s draft Planning Bill in which it proposes to prohibit the registration of land as a town or village green where it has been identified for development. The government also plans to enable landowners to deposit statements with the registration (unitary) authority, challenging people’s use of the land…
Read MoreDeregulation Bill will help to get lost paths on the map
The Deregulation Bill, which is due for second reading in the House of Commons on Monday 3 February, will help to speed up claims for historic rights of way in England. The bill follows the recommendations in Stepping Forward, the report produced in 2010 by Natural England’s stakeholder working group on unrecorded highways. The group…
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We back coastal access for the Isle of Wight
We have again called on the environment minister to include the Isle of Wight in the coastal-access provisions of Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs consulted on this in July 2012 and then, despite the overwhelming support for the order, resolved not to proceed. Now it has…
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Horsted Keynes footpath is saved
A popular footpath at Horsted Keynes, four miles north-east of Haywards Heath in West Sussex, has been saved on its existing route. West Sussex County Council backed the landowner, Miss Wykeham-Martin, in her application to move the footpath, number 8/1, which runs across three fields at Lucas Farm to the edge of two of them.…
Read MoreMendip Council rejects solar farm in Somerset beauty-spot
Mendip Council has refused permission for a solar farm at Kilmersdon, near Radstock in Somerset. The Pegasus Group wanted to erect about 25,000 solar panels on 35 acres of fields at New Tyning Farm, for 25 years. We backed our member the Jack and Jill Hill Preservation Society in opposing the scheme. The society was…
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