The open spaces we champion come in all shapes and sizes and can be in the countryside or in towns.
Is the local open space you love and use protected? Don't take it for granted!
How can you defend the open and green spaces that matter to you?
One of the most effective ways for you to stand up for your right to use a local open space is to join the Open Spaces Society. As a charity, we depend on public donations to fund our vital campaigning and legal work.
As a member, you can count on the support of our expert team based at our head office in Henley-on-Thames. Depending on where you live, you may also have a local Open Spaces Society correspondent (our name for volunteer) who may be able to help you. Find out if you have a local correspondent here
Find your local correspondent
What is an open space?
The open spaces we champion come in all shapes and sizes. They can be in the countryside but also in towns.
They are usually spaces people have chosen to use for recreation, whether formal or informal.
The open spaces we are asked to defend often comprise land where the public has a right to wander such as a local green space, or an open space that has no legal protection but which people use.
It could be a stretch of grass where children play, local people go blackberry picking or to enjoy a picnic.
But just because you use it doesn't mean it's protected unless you do something about it. Read about some of our campaigning work to protect open spaces here.
Is the local open space you love and use protected? Don't take it for granted.
Download our toolkit below and find out how to protect your local green space
Get our toolkit
As part of our campaign to save England's much-loved open spaces, we have published an open spaces toolkit consisting of three handbooks:
How to win local green space through neighbourhood plans
Community assets and protecting open space
Local Green Space Designation
Further resources about Open Spaces
Neighbourhood Planning and Protecting Open Spaces
Neighbourhood planning gives communities in England the opportunity and power to set local planning policies.
Funding boost for neighbourhood planning groups
The government announced in August 2020 that they would increase the basic grant and the level of support available to planning groups in both urban and deprived areas.
Driving and parking on your local green space
Residents often want to be able to stop cars, motorcycles, and even lorries and other large vehicles, from being driven and parked on their local open space for various reasons.
Community Assets & Protecting Open Space
We tell you how to make use of the community asset process to protect your local open space.
Vehicular access across Common Land and Town or Village Greens
This provides guidance about vehicular access across common land and town or village greens following the repeal of section 68 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
Neighbourhood planning gives communities in England the opportunity and power to set local planning policies. You can shape the place where you live and protect valued open spaces using the local green space designation.
A charter for England's open spaces
Read our August 2020 charter for the promotion and protection of open spaces so that everyone in England can benefit.
By-laws for village greens, commons and open spaces
By-laws are rules made by a local authority or certain other public bodies under an enabling Act of Parliament, for the regulation, administration or management of a specific area.
Frequently Asked Questions: Open Spaces
Common questions about open spaces
Government Guidance - Public Access and Rights of Way in England
Insider hacks: three Government publications that will help you to protect public access and rights of way.
The Local Green Space designation (LGS) protects local green areas of particular importance to local communities.
A framework for green space
A proposal to create a new designation to protect green areas of particular importance to local communities
Visit Our Information Hub
Find a local correspondent
Our latest posts on Open Spaces
We have appointed Keith Yarwood as our local correspondent for north Dorset. Keith will be our eyes and ears, keeping a close watch on paths, commons, greens and open spaces in the former North Dorset District Council area. Keith is also vice-chair of Stourpaine Parish Council. He is familiar with checking the state of public…
Watch our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook's Christmas 2020 message. TweetShare0 Shares
We have appointed Peter Berrecloth as our local correspondent for Barnet. Peter is a keen walker, and has walked the length of both Wales and Scotland in winter, a total of 700 miles. He is currently working on a project to trace Barnet's ancient drovers' routes which would have been used to drive livestock from…