Protestors demand the right to roam and wild camp in England!

 

Protestors on Dartmoor

Alexander Darwall's, legal action in the High Court, which led to a ban on wild camping in the Dartmoor National Park, is likely to be a pyrrhic victory for the hedge-fund dealer and Dartmoor land owner. His legal case, has once again, focused the spotlight on the inequitable nature of landownership in Britain. 

Dartmoor was one of the only places in England where you could pitch your tent and have a night under the stars, without having to obtain the permission of the landowner. Under Scottish law, people already have the right to roam and the right to go wild camping. In England - where 92% of land is still privately owned - and Wales, you don't have the right to roam or the right to go wild camping. If you don't get the permission of the landowner, you are committing trespass and can be evicted from the land.

The Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act 2000, does give a legal right of access to mountains, moorland, heath's, and some downland and commons. Yet, rivers and tens of thousands of acres of forest and woodland, are currently inaccessible to the general public, despite the landowners receiving huge public subsidies from the British taxpayer. Countryside campaigners and ramblers, say that the public have the right to roam over only 8% of England.

The Treasury commissioned Lord Agnew to conduct a review into access to nature. The review promised 'radical joined up thinking" and a 'quantum shift in how our society supports people to access and engage with the outdoors." Agnew talks about "our society", but who's society are we really talking about? In a democratic society like Britain, the ownership of land is still concentrated into the hands of a few privileged people. Even in Scotland, half the country is still owned by just 500 people, few of who are actually Scots. But at least in Scotland, the people have access to the land, and the right to go wild camping.

In England, the Tory government, which is full of landowners and wealthy people, wound up the Agnew Review with little explanation, and refused to release the results. The Tory minister, for access to nature and rural affairs, is the immensely wealthy, Richard Benyon, who owns the 12,000 -acre, Englefield estate in Berkshire. Last August, around 150 protestors occupied Benyon's estate demanding that he open up green spaces to the public.

Last week, there was a protest march on Dartmoor, with people demanding the right to wild camp across the moor. In Wales, people are now demanding the right to wild camp on the Welsh mountains. These protests are likely to continue and to intensify, until the British government, introduces a right to roam law similar to that which exists in Scotland. What's good for the Scots is good for the people of England and Wales.

We can all thank Alexander Darwall, for throwing petrol on the fire and opening up the contentious issue of access to land and green spaces in England. The English people will not stand for being treated as feudal subjects and the government's position on trying to block a right to roam law in England and Wales, is untenable.  Anyone who knows anything about British history, realises that the ownership and acquisition of land in this country by private landowners, always was, and is, of dubious legality. Land was frequently expropriated from the "common people", or obtained by war and conquest, or granted to Royal favourites and cronies, after it was stolen from someone else. That's why the subject of land ownership in this country remains a sensitive and touchy subject to this day.