Reclaim Our Moors

Why communities need the power to own environmental assets - Power to Change Imagine if as well as pubs and village halls, communities could dream big and purchase beloved rivers, woods, and peat bogs. A tweak to Labour’s forthcoming ...

3/ For more on why communities should have the powers to own rivers, woods and moors, have a read of @tomchance.bsky.social's excellent letter here: www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/news-and-eve...

And here's a piece I wrote on this: www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...

2/ Big thanks to @simonforstroud.bsky.social for tabling amendments 107 and 108 & to the 9 MPs who have so far added their support!

These would extend the Community Right to Buy to environmental assets, provided the land isn't earmarked for development:

publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...

Image of countryside with words reading: 'Let communities own rivers, woods & moors. Write to your MP about the upcoming Community Right to Buy laws'

Let communities own rivers, woods & moors!

Excellent to see @simonforstroud.bsky.social has tabled amendments 107 & 108 to the Devolution Bill to strengthen Community Right to Buy laws in this way.

We need more Labour MPs to support this - email yours:
www.reclaimourmoors.uk/write-to-you... 1/

Let communities own rivers, woods and moors!

Write to your MP about the upcoming Community Right to Buy laws.

See our template letter here - www.reclaimourmoors.uk/write-to-you...

"Approaching Hartington via Sheen, Derbyshire" by Caff, released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0.

Land for the People (Scotland) Bill - Land Matters Introduction This blog introduces my proposals for a comprehensive Land Reform Bill - one that goes far further than existing proposals in reforming Scotland’s land governance. I plan to publish furth...

Folk often ask me what I would do by way of land reform legislation. Have a read of this blog to find out. It seems pointless to do much further detailed work since there is so little appetite for such measures andywightman.scot/2023/12/land...

Why communities need the power to own environmental assets - Power to Change Imagine if as well as pubs and village halls, communities could dream big and purchase beloved rivers, woods, and peat bogs. A tweak to Labour’s forthcoming ...

3/ For more on why communities should have the powers to own environmental assets, read my blog here: www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...

2/ If you have a Labour MP, please write to them using this template letter created by @reclaimourmoors.bsky.social - tell Ministers to strengthen the Community Right to Buy so that communities can own environmental assets like rivers, woods & peat bogs: www.reclaimourmoors.uk/write-to-you...

Communities must have the right to own environmental assets | Community Land Trust Network We have written on behalf of 100s of community land trusts to urge the government to add 'environmental interests' to the definition of Assets of ...

'Communities must have the right to own environmental assets'

Great letter from @tomchance.bsky.social of the Community Land Trust Network to @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social, asking her to amend the Devolution Bill to strengthen Community Right to Buy:

www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/news-and-eve...

Graphic for workshop announcement. Text reads 'Workshop announcement. Reclaim our moors: how can we use community land buybacks to get land justice. 28-30 November 2025 - SADACCA, Sheffield Flourish, and Raccoon Studios. The infomation is spread through a red, green, white and pink grid with the Reclaim our moors, logo taking up a lot of space. A black and white illustration of a grouse with a fork and a speech bubble reading reclaim our moors.

📣Announcing @ReclaimOurMoors.bsky.social : How we can use community land buybacks to get land justice.

This session will introduce the Reclaim Our Moors project, and set out its aims.

🎟️ Buy tickets and find out more:
buff.ly/g9shP7n

Kat Cowan on BBC Radio Sheffield - Maggie Ewan is a practising Catholic who's passionate about access to the countryside - BBC Sounds Maggie is from Reclaim Our Moors. The BBC has contacted the Duke of Rutland for comment.

Hey, they clipped the interview, so it now has its own page here - www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Kat Cowan on BBC Radio Sheffield - Maggie Ewan is a practising Catholic who's passionate about access to the countryside - BBC Sounds Maggie is from Reclaim Our Moors. The BBC has contacted the Duke of Rutland for comment.

BBC have clipped the interview which can be found on it's own page here - www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Hey, we got the time wrong above... the interview was on at 8.12am which is 2 hours and 12 mins into the show on 26th - sadly by the time we realised the mistake it was too late to edit the above.

Can you try again? Link works fine from this end

'Red Grouse male in summer' image licensed from Shutterstock 26/10/25

Lovely to have space for discussing community ownership of Moscar Moor on BBC Sheffield this morning… You can listen in from 8.12 via www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
#reclaimourmoors

Sheffield campaigners launch bid to buy Moscar Moor for community Moscar Moor is not for sale, but the group hopes to secure it under new Community Right to Buy law.

3/ A great example of a community group in England trying to acquire land with clear environmental benefits to the local community is @reclaimourmoors.bsky.social, who want to buy Moscar Moor in the Peak District - a natural flood defence, carbon store & 'green lung': www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Why communities need the power to own environmental assets - Power to Change Imagine if as well as pubs and village halls, communities could dream big and purchase beloved rivers, woods, and peat bogs. A tweak to Labour’s forthcoming ...

2/ It's vital that the English Devolution Bill is amended in Committee Stage to include 'environmental benefits' alongside social & economic ones - so that communities can acquire environmental assets they value, like rivers, woods & natural flood defences: www.powertochange.org.uk/evidence-and...

In debate on new Community Right to Buy laws, great to see Labour MP @simonforstroud.bsky.social call for communities to be given chance to buy environmental assets, alongside social & economic ones - a point also made by Lib Dem MP @vikkislademp.bsky.social
hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025... 1/

Thanks so much to Graham Wroe for his lovely write up in the Sheffield Telegraph. Do check out @telltherealtruth.bsky.social and join us reclaiming our moors!

Thanks so much to @thestar.co.uk for this lovely double page spread in today’s paper to mark the start of the shooting season.

Hey John, thanks for asking. We will likely be fundraising sometime soon - we've offered the Duke £1 for the moor so far and Dan's mum has said she'd happily cover that.

If you'd like to stay in the loop, drop us a line to reclaimourmoors@gmail.com and we can let you know when more fun is afoot.

We were delighted to be joined on Sunday by three of our elected representatives from @sheffgreenparty.bsky.social, from left to right: Cllr Christine Gilligan-Kubo (Hillsborough), Cllr Marieanne Elliot (Gleadless Valley), Tessa Lupton (Ecclesall candidate), Cllr Douglas Johnson (City).

Went for a bimble up onto the local moors today and shocked by how much exposed peat there is. As mentioned on the @reclaimourmoors.bsky.social walk on Sunday exposed peat will quickly release CO2 whereas healthy peat is a great store for carbon.

The copyright on the above photo of moscar moor is owned by Tim Taylor and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

🚀 Look mum, we're on the beeb! Perhaps auntie wants to Reclaim Our Moors too?! www.bbc.com/news/article...

Sheffield campaigners launch bid to buy Moscar Moor for community Moscar Moor is not for sale, but the group hopes to secure it under new Community Right to Buy law.

A bid to buy Moscar Moor has launched which would take it from the assets of the Duke of Rutland and return its management to the local community, informed by ecologists. What’s not to like?

Follow @reclaimourmoors.bsky.social for more updates

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Sheffield campaigners launch bid to buy Moscar Moor for community Moscar Moor is not for sale, but the group hopes to secure it under new Community Right to Buy law.

Sheffield campaigners launch bid to buy Moscar Moor for the community

Local Labour councillor Minesh Parekh said: “I look forward to people making use of the upcoming 'Community Right to Buy' legislation to bring mismanaged land into community hands”

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A few of us went for a walk up there today to see what the Duke had been spending his grant money on.

(Plot Spoiler.)
Not much.

Not a single grouse was spotted all day either.

Excellent protest walk today across part of the Duke's trashed moorland. The mismanagement is not just "alleged", it's glaringly obvious. And it's not only about wildlife: degraded peat moorland releases carbon and contributes to climate change, and heather burning causes the majority of wildfires.

🌱 Imagine how much richer the moors could be if they were owned by the community as a whole. We could restore them to their former glory, and we’d all benefit from cleaner air, reduced flood risk and abundant wildlife as a result.

📣 It’s time to reclaim our moors.