Mass trespass on Dartmoor to highlight England’s ‘piecemeal’ right to roam laws

Hundreds of people campaigning for the right to roam in England are to descend on Dartmoor in an effort to highlight the limitations of the country’s system.

More than 90 years since the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, which helped establish the principle of the right to roam in the UK, organisers say England’s partial right to roam is “ridiculous” and are calling for a system of access rights that echoes Scotland’s.

Supporters will gather at Vixen Tor in Devon on 24 February, in what organisers say will be the largest mass trespass in a generation.

They aim to highlight the current situation, where large swathes of the countryside that can be freely roamed upon can only be accessed by trespassing across private land.

In 2000 the Countryside and Rights of Way Act gave people a right to roam over certain landscape types, such as mountains, moorland, heathland, downland and commons.

However, the campaign group Right to Roam argues that this landscape – known as “access land” and covering about 8% of England – is often surrounded by farmed fields and other privately owned landscapes, creating inaccessible “islands” of free-to-roam land.

Lewis Winks, a Right to Roam campaigner, said: “The absurdity of access islands is a clear example of why our current system of access rights in England is broken.

“Often people don’t know where they have a right to go in the countryside. It’s ridiculous that the public have to trespass to reach these fragments of land where they have a legal right to roam – all because of our piecemeal approach to access in this country.”

To raise awareness of the situation, trespassers will start at the wall that separates open-access and private land. Performers and musicians will bring a large boat to symbolically “sail” to the island, and participants have been asked to think of other creative ways to travel over inaccessible land.

In Scotland, countryside-lovers have a “right of responsible access” to the countryside, with exceptions, and the rights and responsibilities both of landowners and access takers, defined within the Land Reform (Scotland) Act and the outdoor access code.

Last year the UK Labour party pledged to introduce a Scottish-style right to roam law in England if it won the next general election, but made a U-turn in October. Instead of an assumed right of access, the party said it would find other ways to create more access to land in England, after some landowners’ groups voiced concerns.

Winks said politicians in England should look to Scotland’s example to address the unworkable current system. “There are no access islands in Scotland … which created a default right of access to most land and water in 2003, to be exercised responsibly and subject to sensible exemptions and rules,” he said.

“With political parties pledging to increase access to nature in England, it’s vital they learn from the mistakes of the past, and look instead to follow successful examples like Scotland.”