A toothless watchdog?
Our case officer Nicola Hodgson is keeping a close watch on the Environment Bill. This was introduced to parliament on 30 January 2020 with second reading on 26 February. The public-bill committee’s scrutiny was cut short by the covid-19 crisis, and the committee was expected to report to parliament by the end of June, but…
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Extend deadlines to rescue common land and village greens
We have urged the government to extend deadlines to enable the public to safeguard common land and town and village greens. This would be in line with the extension of deadlines to allow development to proceed, under the Business and Planning Bill 2019-21. The society has written to the environment minister, Lord Gardiner. We are…
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Archive progress
The Special Collections team at the University of Reading and the Museum of English Rural Life (the MERL) has been working with the society to care for, and to open, our archive to the public and to potential researchers. The completed cataloguing work, and the collected oral histories of key staff members, will reveal our…
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Kent parish council dedicates a green
We have commended our member East Malling and Larkfield Parish Council in Kent for dedicating land as a village green. Kent County Council approved the registration in February. The one-acre land is known as Whimbrel Village Green and is an area of open space within a housing estate (the streets of which are named…
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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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The rise and fall of village greens
The Supreme Court has dealt a bitter blow to communities wanting to protect their open spaces. As a result of a judgment last December concerning two green spaces, in Lancashire and Surrey, it has become much more difficult to protect land and assert rights of recreation on it. Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, follows the…
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Lancaster green space saved for the community
We are delighted that Lancashire County Council has agreed to register Freeman’s Wood as a town green, thus saving it from development. The nine-hectare site is an open field surrounded by woodland next to the Lune industrial estate on the west side of Lancaster. Originally a waste tip for the former linoleum factory, it has…
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Kingsmead Field, Canterbury, is made a village green
Canterbury City Council has dedicated three acres of Kingsmead Field in Kent as a village green. Kent County Council approved the registration last month. Now that the land is registered it is protected from development and local people have rights of recreation here. Canterbury City Council agreed to dedicate the land in return for a…
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Our general secretary wins bronze award
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, has won bronze in The Great Outdoors magazine’s Campaigner of the Year Award, following a vote from members of the public. Described by one voter as ‘inspirational in her constant drive to keep footpaths open’, Kate came third to environmental campaigners Greta Thunberg and Chris Packham. Says Kate: ‘I am…
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Supreme Court overrides rights of local communities on village greens
We have expressed deep sympathy for our members, Janine Bebbington and the Moorside Fields Community Group in Lancaster, following the Supreme Court judgment(1) on 11 December rejecting the registration of the fields as a village green. See our summary of the judgment here. This will have a huge impact on the ability of local communities…
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