Right to Roam: Public should have greater access to English countryside, say campaigners

In Scotland, residents can wander over almost all land and inland waters, while in England such access only covers around eight per cent of the country.

Right to roam campaigners, staging a mass trespass near the England-Scotland border this weekend, have called on Westminster to adopt the same land reforms.

Guy Shrubsole, one of the founders of Right to Roam, said introducing such laws would give more people access to nature with the associated benefits that brings.

He said: “I think that’d be really brilliant for public health in terms of physical and mental health.

“We saw during lockdowns how important access to green space was, but also how unequal access was – people who weren’t able to get out and didn’t have private gardens or weren’t able to get out into the countryside.”

Under Scottish Parliament's land laws, people can wander almost anywhere provided they follow certain basic rules and commit to a practice known as 'leave no trace'.

Private gardens, cropland and areas of nature that are particularly sensitive remain out of bounds, though wild camping is permitted on other land.

These rights were granted by legislation passed in 2003 but in England a right to free access covers only eight per cent of the country, excluding footpaths.

Wild camping is illegal everywhere except a small area in Dartmoor - and even this was temporarily taken away earlier this year when a local landowner argued for its prohibition.

Right to Roam was founded in 2020 after seeing rights of access closed off during lockdown. Campaigners took to the border lands north of Carlisle on Saturday, trespassing through boggy woodland to meet their Scottish counterparts coming legally from the other side.

A copy of the Land Reform Act was passed from one to the other, before campaigners were greeted by a man playing bagpipes on a small rise.

Representatives waded into the water and exchanged a slug of beer and whisky before pouring the remainder into the stream in a small sacrificial ceremony.

Harry Jenkins, who has been with the group since its inception, said: “We’re not doing this as protests, they are celebrations of the land. It’s a coming together of people with respect for the rights of the countryside.

“We don’t just want access to the land. We want to be empowering people who would not normally be out, people who do not normally feel safe there.”

And Mr Shrubsole, on the behaviours which would be expected of those roaming the countryside, said often it's a small minority of people who end up spoiling things.

"There are a small minority of people who drive dangerously, we don’t ban everyone from the roads," he said. “What we’re calling for is a right of responsible access, we are talking very much about responsibilities going hand in hand with an extension of rights. And at the heart of that has to be public education.”