"Public access to good-quality green spaces must be a priority for the new government," Phil Wadey, chairman of the OPEN SPACES SOCIETY said at the society's annual general meeting held today, 4 July - the day of the UK general election. "We stand ready with suggestions for the government to improve access to, and enjoyment of, green spaces and paths in town and country."
He added, "Rather than make announcements that sound good but have little behind them, we should like the new government to hold an early consultation on how to increase public access for all. In particular, we want to know that previous ministerial promises(2) to provide green and blue spaces within 15 minutes' walk of where people live can be turned into practise.
'As part of any review of the planning system, the new government should mandate the registration of town and village greens in every development over a certain size or density; that would help to ensure that open space is protected for all to enjoy. We also want to see it made possible to register lost commons throughout England, and not just in the 'pioneer areas' of Cumbria and North Yorkshire."
Regarding new legislation, he continued, "We need a new Access Bill to extend responsible freedom of access under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 to woodlands, watersides, and water, bringing access close to home. And we want to see government funding of permanent new access rights, upgrading access for all unpowered and disabled users, and improved access along existing rights of way, where it is needed, under the Environmental Land Management Schemes, and by other means.
"The new law should include a duty on county and unitary councils to enforce against unlawful encroachments on commons. And local authorities should be required to provide funding for, and management of, open spaces. These are vital for health and well-being, and their future must be secured: funding must not be driven by commercial exploitation."
On simplifying procedures, Wadey urged a new way forward, 'We propose that the complicated system of getting paths reopened should be simplified. The new Bill should allow public paths and minor roads to be made fit for use by a simple procedure whereby a member of the public serves notice on the highway authority to require the way to be maintained and kept clear, regardless of who has the responsibility for this.
"And finally, for now at least, we call on the new government to undo the damage inflicted by the last but one Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs when she commenced the Path Extinguishment Day provisions on 1 January 2031, without enabling the exemptions promised which would have protected many routes from the guillotine. A clause repealing section 53 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 would prevent her action from removing public rights from the hundreds of miles of unrecorded and under-recorded rights of way."
BACKGROUND
- The Open Spaces Society was founded in 1865 and is Britain's oldest national conservation body. It campaigns to protect common land, village greens, open spaces and public paths, and people's right to enjoy them.
- On 31 January 2023, the previous government promised, in its Environmental Improvement Plan, that (within five years) 'the public will benefit from a new commitment to access green space or water within a 15-minute walk from their home'.
- Town and village greens are land where the public has enjoyed 20 years informal use without permission or challenge. A landowner may voluntarily dedicate a town or village green without such evidence. Once registered, the land is protected from development by section 12 of the Inclosure Act 1857 and section 29 of the Commons Act 1876, and local people have legal rights of recreation there in perpetuity.
- Common land is land subject to, or formerly subject to, rights of common—to graze animals or collect wood for instance—or waste land of the manor not subject to rights. The public has the right to walk on nearly all commons, and to ride on many. Commons are protected in that works on common land require the consent of the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006.
- Applications for the registration of commons had to be made during a three-year period, 1967 to 1970, under the Commons Registration Act 1965, but many were omitted. Part 1 of the Commons Act 2006 Act enables the registration of some of those commons which failed, for specified reasons, to be registered under the Commons Registration Act 1965. This has been brought into force in nine registration areas in England but the deadline has now passed for applications in seven of them. Applications can still be made in North Yorkshire and Cumbria until 15 March 2027 and throughout Wales until 4 May 2032.
- Although it is unlawful to encroach on common land, no one has a duty to take legal action against this.
PHOTO: Kingsmead Field in Canterbury, Kent, voluntarily registered as a town green by Canterbury City Council in 2019.
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