Right to Roam

Do you think this new government has any plans to extend right to roam nationwide?

No

Wish they did, but that would require more courage than current English politicians have.

Do you think this new government has any plans to extend right to roam nationwide?

LOL.

Ah bless.

Heard nothing about it so I’d guess not. Besides, I think they’ve got bigger issues to focus on resolving first…

Not a chance in England

https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/2024/06/election_2024_-_what_do_party_promises_mean_for_the_outdoors-73695 is worth reading for info

I think if you’ve got a newly elected MP it’s probably worth writing to them to say this is important to you and will they support it?

Labour did voice support for a significant reform a year or so ago but back tracked to a much watered down plan in their manifesto.

I live in hope that on this and a few other things it was done to avoid ‘scaring the horses’ pre election and that they’ll gradually adopt more ambitious plans in government. I’m probably going to be disappointed though.

Are you on the right to roam mailing list? It’s a good way to keep up to date with any progress, lobbying etc. I do think that ever since lockdown, the Dartmoor episode etc. it is a lot higher up the agenda than it has been. Probably not the first priority of a new government but there will be a lot more sympathy for it on the labour benches than amongst the ‘git orf MOI laaand’ Tories.

It’s not a Right to Roam. That’s misleading and divisive of the two sides of the issue.

It’s a Right to Responsible Access.
This is different in law and in ‘appeal’ to both sides of the issue.

Calling it a Right to Roam will cause so many more issues by uninformed numpties using it as an excuse for all sorts of poor behaviour.

The big difference between Scotland and implementing in England, Wales or NI is population density. And you only have to see where the worst issues are under Scottish Access laws to realise that density of population leads to higher numbers of irresponsible access issues.

Matt +1

It’s also important to remember that the position in Scotland pre legislation was wholly different to where England is now

The big difference between Scotland and implementing in England, Wales or NI is population density.

Hey, who are you calling stupid?

( You could be right though)

Nope.
They did have a sensible proposal but seem to been brought off by the subsidies brigade.

Matt +2

You guys really need to stop using the term ‘Right to Roam’. It sends the message that ‘I’m going to do what I want, when I want on your land and there’s nothing you can do about it’.

Change the narrative that you want to access land responsibly and you might have a chance of seeing movement on this.

There’s already open access land where it’s appropriate. In Wales, it’s basically all the open upland areas and woodland that you’d want to go on anyway, with a few exceptions. I’m not sure how much there is in lowland England.  This could of course be extended, or new classes of land access introduced, but as above a blanket right to roam everywhere seems pretty difficult to implement.

The best we can hope for as MTBers is a legislative framework to effectively decriminalise the sort of riding and trail building we want to do.  So for example, make it an offence to damage something that the landowner has done, impinge on their activities in some way, but allow access by bike provided they meet such responsible criteria.  Likewise, remove the landowner’s liability for injury on their land as long as certain precautions are taken i.e. signage, or they can prove it was nothing to do with them.

It’s also important to remember that the position in Scotland pre legislation was wholly different to where England is now

Is this referring to the Clearances and resulting concentration of land ownership?

I’ve had the ‘Right to Roam is the wrong term’ discussion both face to face and online with the chap who is leading this campaign. He just isn’t interested. He thinks it’s a Right to Roam and that is that.

With attitudes like that behind it, it’s never moving forward.

It’s also important to remember that the position in Scotland pre legislation was wholly different to where England is now

Is this referring to the Clearances and resulting concentration of land ownership?i

It’s to do with the general acceptance of access to land/ rivers etc that existed for time immemorial. That was codified in The Act in 2003(?). I may be using incorrect terminology here, so feel free to correct anyone 

Basically access was an accepted right but was made law in the land reform act. The process of doing so created disagreement as it meant defining what was permitted.

In England there has never been any assumed right of access, as far as I am aware. So the change is profound, ie a reversal of the status quo.

Again feel free to correct me