Published Article

HeadlineCampaigners call for the Right to Roam in England’s nature

Short HeadlineCampaigners call for wants more access to England's nature

StandfirstThe campaign says current spaces are inaccessible to those who cannot afford a car, and there should be more open land where people live.

In England, most land is off-limits and campaigners are calling for  free access to nature.

The Right to Roam campaign is calling for the freedom to wander in the countryside and for there to be access by default.

But some warn it will lead to littering and destruction.

In an investigation for City News, Jacob Perkins spoke to those on both sides of the debate.

What are the rules now?

In England, there is open access to only 8% of land and even less access to rivers.

Access is largely restricted to the over 100,000-mile network of footpaths.

And you can’t swim in most of England’s rivers, apart from places where you need permission from the landowner.

But in national parks like the Peak District, you can walk wherever you want. You can walk off the path on most mountains, moors, heaths, and downs as it’s often open-access land.

That’s because lots of land is designated as access land after the Countryside and Rights of Way Act.

But for 91 constituencies in the UK, there’s no access land.

The Right to Roam campaign says these spaces are inaccessible to those who cannot afford a car, and there should be more land where people live.

Kate Ashbrook leads the Open Spaces Society, which wants nature to be more accessible, and she sees benefits to the current right-of-way system. She said: “We really want people to grow to love nature on their doorstep and beyond.”

Cirencester Park: Restricting access?

But if there’s “no access land” or public rights-of-way, landowners are free to limit access and charge what they want.

In the Cotswolds, a park that had been free for hundreds of years introduced automatic gates with charges for visitors.

Jon Moses, who leads the English Right to Roam campaign said the charging was another example of the ever-shrinking amount of nature that people in England can access.

He told City News that the Bathurst family, who owns the estate, says “it was a state monopoly set up to trade slaves from the West of Africa.”

A protest against the fees at Cirencester Park featured music and poetry from local artists.

Lord Bathurst says the charges will fund restoration and that they are affordable.

Is land for food?

Some farmers worry about the impact of access for the safety of crops and livestock.

Farmer Bizza Walters says existing access laws allow too much freedom already.

She’s recently noticed an increase in littering and dogs off-lead scaring her sheep.

Is there too much litter?

The Government says there’s already access to hundreds of thousands of hectares of land.

But the amount of litter in nature has increased by over 600% since the 1960s. Trash Free Trails is an organisation that runs educational projects to help clean up single-use plastic pollution.

Rach Coleman from Trash Free Trails says that the reason people litter is that “they don’t have a connection to it – and we need to foster that connection”.

Farmers and landowners say they need restrictions on access to protect their crops, their livestock and sensitive habitats.

But others say they need more places to just be in nature.

:: You can watch the full film on City Player.