The threatened land at Clyne Common. Photo: Michael Crafer
Campaigning body the Open Spaces Society is pleading for donations to replenish its legal action fund.
Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the organisation, said the society needs to top up its coffers to fight further battles, after a series of successes.
She said: “We launched our fund a year ago and, despite a magnificent response, we have spent or pledged all the money on worthwhile legal cases. Now we need to replenish it.
“The society has a proud record of going to law, over the past 159 years, to defend our rights to commons, open spaces and paths.
“In these times of financial austerity, those who are supposed to protect our commons, open spaces, and paths are failing to do so. This demands that we step in and use the courts to safeguard these vital places.
“We frequently receive requests for legal action, and we must react quickly. Even when we lose, we often gain useful opinions and valuable insights into how to succeed another time.”
Kate Ashbrook: 'we need to replenish the fund'. Photo: Bob Smith Photography
The OSS has intervened to support Dartmoor National Park Authority in confirming that there is a right to backpack camping on Dartmoor’s commons. The case has been heard in the supreme court and the outcome is awaited.
With other organisations it has successfully challenged local authorities and the Planning Inspectorate on rights-of-way in Cornwall, the East Riding of Yorkshire, and North Yorkshire.
It has also backed its members’ cases, in Bristol and Swansea for instance, and said it stands ready to test further aspects of the law in the coming year.
Ms Ashbrook said: “We are seeking donations to restore our fund and enable us to continue our legal work in defence of these precious, threatened spaces and paths.”
Among cases the society, Britain’s oldest national conservation body, has supported, is legal representation at a public inquiry into a housing development on Clyne Common, Swansea, involving the exchange of common land for what it says is grossly inferior land some distance way.
Other cases and details of how to support the plea for fund are on the Open Spaces Society website.
