Defending the right to roam
When Lewis Winks heard the High Court ruled to prohibit the right to roam on the Dartmoor Comms – a small upland area in the south of Devon – he didn’t sit back and accept the decision. Winks and his team decided to protest the matter and started The Stars are for Everyone.
Now, over three months have passed since the decision and the group is still passionately active and determined to change the current Right to Roam laws in the UK. Dartmoor was the last remaining area in the UK where wild camping was legal.
However, a new paid-for permissive system has been implemented to substitute the latter, meaning landowners’ permission is needed before pitching on the comms.
“We’ve seen an access right removed and replaced with a paid-for permissive system which can be withdrawn, altered, diminished and altogether disappeared at the request of a handful of landowners,” says Winks.
While it may seem like a step forward, the protestor claims it sets a dangerous precedent – that the public should “accept the crumbs off the landowner’s table.”
“They have stolen the goose and are selling us back the eggs,” he adds.
Dartmoor National Park Authority publicly thanked the Darwall estate for their cooperation leading into the High Court proceedings, and have maintained this collaborative mindset in terms of the development of the new permissive system.
The recent spark in the public’s right to roam has stirred conversations across the UK on both the local and central government levels. The Labour Party has promised to reform the Right to Roam law if brought to power. The Lib Dems have also supported the opposition stance.
We are seeing a growing appetite for something similar to what Scotland has, which Winks describes as “an outdoor access code which enshrines in law the public’s right to responsibly enjoy the wonderful islands which we inhabit.”
If you would like to learn about places where you can wild camp, check out our latest issue of GORP magazine coming up this Spring.