RtR Newsletters / Blog

Dear Roamers, Over the past five years there have been no fewer than nine major policy announcements, commitments, or reviews of public access. All of which have since been shelved, abandoned, diluted, or have otherwise vanished into the ether. First, the Agnew Review – announced during the heady days of the pandemic, when access inequality was at the forefront of everyone’s mind. This promised “radical, joined up thinking” that would lead to a “quantum shift in how our society supports people to access and engage with the outdoors”. It was shelved. Next: the government’s response to the Glover ‘Landscapes Review’, with its clarion cry that ‘fair access is given to all’. To evidence action taken, the government scrabbled together a handful of regional initiatives it had little hand in… and a poetry prize. In response to Glover’s call for enhanced access rights on access land, the government said it would “aim to review the open access maps to clarify rights and inform any further consideration of expanding open access rights”. Aim to review – translation: ‘think about considering’. It didn’t happen. Then came the, admittedly bold, declaration that everyone ‘will live a fifteen minute walk from a green space or water’. An idea which promised to defy laws of physics and geography unless the government simultaneously enacted the comprehensive right to roam the minister was quick to explicitly rule out. This is still technically government policy. But when we made a freedom of information request about progress it turned out no one had actually done any real work on the proposal and the suggestion to make it a legally binding target had been quashed. So much for that. Still, on and on the announcements came and went. In 2023, Rishi Sunak announced the “search” for a new national park in England. I guess he’s still looking. Around the same time a ‘woodland access implementation plan’ was published, promising to “enhance and create new access rights in woodlands”. It didn’t. Perhaps having a new party in power would finally lead to some actual delivery. Unfortunately here too the record has been mixed. Labour committed to a Scottish style right to roam (yay!), U-turned after lobbying pressure from the major landowning and farming lobbies (boo!) re-committed to extending the CRoW Act (mostly yay!), which became a commitment to a White paper (okay!), which became a commitment to a Green paper (hrm!) which has been kicked into the long grass (sigh!) and is now due to be “published [sometime] this parliament”. Last Boxing Day they promised to remove the 2031 cut off for registering historic rights of way. But they still haven’t allocated parliamentary time for it to happen. Still, just as under the Conservatives, the announcement machine keeps rolling. The latest Boxing Day splash saw the government declare that the first of their “nine national river walks” was to be piloted on the river Mersey. Long term readers of the newsletter will know we’ve been highly critical of these proposals, and this announcement did little to dampen our objections. It appears the Mersey, which is already one of the more accessible rivers in England, won’t actually receive any new access. Instead the existing path will be getting accessibility upgrades. No bad thing. But a level of ambition worthy of a parish council, not a national government. Governing is hard and we’d love to be more positive about what politics can achieve. After all, the flood of announcements does reflect awareness that the access issue is popular, necessary and not going away. But it’s hard not to conclude that Westminster is currently more committed to the theatre of change than to actually changing lives. This year we need to break through that inertia. To help, this weekend we’re hosting our very first in-person gathering of the entire Right to Roam local group network. This has steadily grown to fifteen regions since we launched it exactly three years ago and we’re excited to finally have an opportunity to meet representatives from across the country to strategise a way forward. We appreciate that not everyone can make these kinds of events (you probably don’t have the time and we don’t yet have the space!) but if you have thoughts you’d like to contribute to the conversation, reply to us here and we’ll throw them into the mix. Best wishes, Jon and the Right to Roam team ---------- For the latest campaign updates, follow us on Instagram & Bluesky To get involved, check out our website here. Can you help keep us roaming? Head to ‘Donate’ here.

Dear Roamers, The Right to Roam Christmas film is launched! Recap of 2025 Right to Roam awarded TGO Campaign of the Year First Kendal group meeting A huge thanks to all of you who have followed and supported the campaign through 2025. It has been, as the cliché goes, ‘a year of highs and lows’, with a major victory at the Supreme Court, yet more shuffling of government ministers (annoying!), and further attempts by major landowners to chip away at the limited access we already have. With your help we’ve been fighting back and pushing forward. We end the year with a firm commitment from the government to introduce a Green Paper, which will explore expanding statutory rights of access (the first step on the road to new legislation), a bigger and more vibrant local group network than ever, and lots of exciting stuff already lined up for 2026. It’s going to be a big year. More on that in January. But for now: a treat – our first Christmas film! NEW FILM: WILD SERVICE ON THE RIVER RODING Many of you will know that last year the campaign published a book called WILD SERVICE: Why Nature Needs You (available at all good independent bookshops etc), highlighting stories showing how access can lead to guardianship of the natural world. One of those stories featured a community project on the Roding, a neglected river in east London which, in 2017, was squatted by the environmental barrister (and Right to Roam’s sometime legal adviser!) Paul Powlesland, as part of a plan to live among the reeds and defend the river’s rights. We felt this story captured everything about the spirit of guerrilla guardianship that we believe Wild Service represents. So, we teamed up with Paul and the now established River Roding Trust for a weekend of community connection and care. Filmmaker Connor Newson (lavandafilms.co.uk) came along for the journey and kindly put together this beautiful film: Wild Service on the River Roding. Watch on our YouTube channel HERE. CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR This week we were delighted to hear the readers of The Great Outdoors Magazine had voted us as their Campaign of the Year! We don’t do it for the awards but still, it’s nice to be recognised. It’s also a recognition of the thousands of YOU – writing to your MPs, attending trespasses and protests, signing petitions, donating to the campaign, sharing stories and helping flower a new countryside in countless hopeful ways. NEW KENDAL GROUP As mentioned, our local group network is growing from strength to strength (all power to Nadia, who is doing a heroic job holding it all together in the limited hours we can afford!) and we’re excited to say a new group in Kendal is forming. The first meeting will be held on Sunday 18th January 6pm at Fell Bar in Kendal. ------------------------------------------------ We’ll be back in touch in the new year, until then, enjoy the film and a merry Christmas from all of us at Right to Roam. Jon, on behalf of the Right to Roam team ------------------------------------------------ We’ve been campaigning for bold new access legislation for five years, and with the help of the generous support of a few hundred subscribers - each donating around £5-£10 a month - we’ve been mostly able to remain untethered to the demands of grant funding and fundraising. If you feel you could become one of our monthly supporters to keep us agile and focused, please head over to our website: www.righttoroam.org.uk/donate

Dear Roamers, It’s been a busy few weeks for the campaign. Last week, Right to Roam briefly met Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, as the Government announced it will consult on an Access Green Paper in future. We also recently marked the 25th anniversary of the Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act being passed, joining a great event up in Hebden Bridge. And our amazing Local Groups completed not just 9 but 10 river trespasses, demanding greater access to England’s waterways. For details on all this and more, read on… Meeting the Environment Secretary and an Access Green Paper Last Monday, in the leafy settings of the Barbican Conservatory in London, we met Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds. After handing her some of our well-designed leaflets, we asked her to introduce new right to roam laws. The occasion was the launch of the Government’s new Environmental Improvement Plan - in which we were pleased to see a commitment to publish a new Access Green Paper, and consult on ways to “strengthen the public’s legal rights to access”. That phrase ‘legal rights to access’ is particularly welcome - and we’ll be holding Ministers to those words. The bad news, however, is that the Government is now talking about their Access Green Paper being “published during this Parliament” - which could be anytime up until 2029! Given that officials have been working on a Green Paper for the past six months, with input from the Right to Roam campaign and other access groups, this delay is very frustrating. What this means is we all need to keep building pressure on politicians so that an expansion of access rights gets pushed higher up the political agenda. Huge thanks to all of you who’ve been emailing your MPs - please keep doing so. 25th Anniversary of CRoW November saw the 25th anniversary of the passing of the Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act, which created the open access land that currently exists in England. A commemorative event was held in Hebden Bridge, organised by Hebden Bridge Walkers Action. Amy-Jane Beer spoke on behalf of Right to Roam, alongside representatives of other access organisations and recreational groups, and access champion MPs Andy MacNae and Phil Brickell. Our talk acknowledged the gains ushered in by CRoW, but highlighted the various limitations and unintended consequences of a legislation that limits access to 8% of England (including Public Rights of Way), and only caters to pedestrian access, with no right to swim, paddle, ride a horse or a bike, camp or forage on open access land, let alone birdwatch, draw, picnic, or take a nap. Furthermore, access under CRoW is a postcode lottery, with inequality baked in. It does nothing to protect us from the scourge of micro-enclosures, as owners exercise their right to sever us from land that we love. Nor does it ensure adequate public information: for too many people, it feels easier and safer not to access the countryside. It is so different in Scotland where a detailed and inclusive access code outlines the principles of responsible access for all. Access islands are a further consequence of CRoW, as is the distance many us have to travel to reach open access land. Rather than extending the map-based approach that creates inequity and complexity, Right to Roam is calling for a ‘rights and rules’-based approach that focuses not so much on where we can go but how. We explained why we campaign so explicitly for rights, rather than more nebulous ‘freedoms’. Simply put, because rights give surety. We will not have equity and connectivity of access in perpetuity without them. At the end of the day, ‘freedom’ is insecure and you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone… At the end of the conference, attendees unanimously approved the ‘Hebden Bridge Declaration’, calling for “ambitious new legislation for access to the land and inland waters of England”, the text of which can be read here. Right to Roam Local Groups complete 9 - no, 10! - river trespasses This past weekend saw the last of our river trespasses organised by our amazing Local Groups network. The past month has seen a grand total of 10 river trespasses take place across England - demanding greater access to our waterways, and pointing out that the Government’s pledge of a mere 9 river walks is inadequate and unworkable. Huge thanks to our Right to Roam Local Groups in Sheffield, Bristol, Suffolk, Kernow, West Yorkshire, Somerset & Wiltshire, West Midlands, Cheshire/North West, Norfolk, and South Devon. For more photos and stories from the trespasses, check out our Instagram account. And a huge thanks also to all of YOU who have been writing to your MPs to say ‘why not give the public access to OUR river?’. Every letter to an MP - especially a personalised message - helps show them that access to nature is a political priority for constituents. We hope to send you one further newsletter this month with a round-up of the year. Until then, happy roaming! Best wishes, Guy, Amy, Holly, and the rest of the Right to Roam team --- We’ve been campaigning for bold new access legislation for five years, and with the help of the generous support of a few hundred subscribers - each donating around £5-£10 a month - we’ve been mostly able to remain untethered to the demands of grant funding and fundraising. If you feel you could become one of our monthly supporters to keep us agile and focused, please head over to our website: www.righttoroam.org.uk/donate

Dear Roamers, All this month, our wonderful Right to Roam local groups are organising river trespasses across England - from the River Lark in Suffolk to the River Aire in West Yorkshire. You can find more details of their upcoming river trespasses below. But whether or not you can join one of these locally-organised trespasses, we need your help. We need you to ask your MP: why isn’t the Government giving the public access to OUR local river? Communities love their rivers, yet seldom have access to them. 96% of rivers in England & Wales don’t have a clear right of navigation for kayakers, and the right to swim in them is legally murky. Yet it’s local people - swimmers, kayakers, anglers - who care most for our rivers, and who’ve done the most to raise the alarm about our waterways being polluted with sewage, agricultural fertilisers and plastic. The UK Government has pledged to create 9 new river walks in England - but with around 1,500 rivers in the UK, it’s clear this would be just a drop in the ocean. Why should some people get greater access to their local river, and not others? As our local groups are asking: Why not our river? Ask your MP: why is the Government only promising 9 river walks - why not OUR river? To make it easy for you, we’ve drafted an email you can send your MP below. Simply copy and paste it into an email, and send it off to them - and of course, feel free to edit or add your own lines, such as about how much you love your local river. You can find your MP’s email address on the UK Parliament website here Dear ____ MP, I’m writing to you as your constituent, to urge you to call on the UK Government to make all rivers in England accessible to the public. The Government has pledged to create 9 new river walks in England - but with around 1,500 rivers in the UK, it’s clear this would be just a drop in the ocean. Why not our local river? Why not give people a right to responsibly access all rivers in England? Access to nature is so important for everyone’s physical and mental health, and being able to walk along river banks, and swim and kayak in rivers, should be everyone’s right. What’s more, it’s local people - swimmers, kayakers, anglers - who care most for our rivers, and who’ve done the most to raise the alarm about our waterways being polluted with sewage, agricultural fertilisers and plastic. But far too many of our rivers are inaccessible to their local communities: fenced off by landowners and hemmed in by archaic trespass laws, 96% of the rivers in England and Wales lack a clear right of navigation. Locking the public out of our rivers isn’t just bad for human health - it’s contributed to the poor ecological health of those rivers. It’s meant that local people can’t so easily see the pollution poured into them by water companies, can’t clear build-ups of plastic waste, and can’t help tackle outbreaks of invasive species like Himalayan Balsam. There’s a way to help fix this, which is for the Government to pass new laws giving the public a right of responsible access to all rivers in England, as well as the wider countryside. It works in Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and many other countries. We’ve had a partial right to roam in England for the past twenty years, but the law has never applied to rivers - why not? As your constituent, I ask you please to write to the Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds, urging her to legislate for a right of responsible access to England’s rivers and wider countryside. Please also raise this issue in Parliament via parliamentary questions and at upcoming debates. Thank you for your help, Yours sincerely, [INSERT YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS, SO YOUR MP KNOWS YOU ARE A CONSTITUENT] ===== UPCOMING RIVER TRESPASSES Sat 29th Nov - River Aire, West Yorkshire - West Yorkshire Right to Roam. 9.45am, Apperley Bridge train station. For more details, email: righttoroamwestyorkshire@gmail.com Sat 29th Nov - River Camel, Cornwall - Right to Roam Kernow. 11am, Scarlett’s Well Road, Bodmin. For more details, email: right2roam.kernow@gmail.com Sat 29th Nov - River Blythe, West Mids - Right to Roam West Midlands. 9.45am, Solihull train station. For more details, email: righttoroam.westmids@gmail.com Sun 30th Nov - Pigeonhouse Stream - Bristol Right to Roam. 11am, Bishport Avenue Lay-by Bus Stop, BS13 OBN, What3Words: dark.cubes.often. For more details, email: rtrbristol@gmail.com Sun 7th December - River Lathkill - Right to Roam Sheffield. 11am, Alport, near Bakewell. For more details, email: right2roamsheffield@gmail.com ====== AND… A RIGHT TO ROAM GIG IN NEWCASTLE A cosy, curated Autumn evening hunkering down in support and celebration of the Right to Roam with song, story, and words from Lucy & Hazel, Johnny Campbell, and Amy-Jane Beer! 12th December, Newcastle. Buy tickets here. Happy trespassing, happy emailing & happy singing! Best wishes, Guy and the Right to Roam team --- We’ve been campaigning for bold new access legislation for five years, and with the help of the generous support of a few hundred subscribers - each donating around £5-£10 a month - we’ve been mostly able to remain untethered to the demands of grant funding and fundraising. If you feel you could become one of our monthly supporters to keep us agile and focused, please head over to our website: www.righttoroam.org.uk/donate

For centuries, England has been the preserve of the few. Aristocratic estates, the manors of the gentry, royal parks: all form a web of privilege and inheritance which too often shape our landscapes, as well as who gets to belong in them. We were reminded of this last week, following Prince William and Princess Kate’s move to Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park, resulting in hundreds of acres of formerly accessible woodland being closed to the public. A ‘serious organised crime’ designation is due to come into force, enabling the immediate arrest of all found trespassing. Kate has spoken recently of the “spiritual and very intense emotional reconnection” that comes from experiencing nature. But is that consistent with removing even more of the countryside from public availability? Meanwhile, Kate’s sister, Pippa Middleton, has blocked footpath access on her 145 acre estate in West Berkshire, after evicting all the residing tenants. The old, feudal order remains. But today it is also being joined by a new force: the corporate bodies, pension trusts and speculative funds which are quietly buying up swathes of land and banking it to turn a profit. Last month the Government announced plans for a string of New Towns. One of them, Adlington, caught our attention. The land there has been held for the past two years by Belport Ltd, the same asset management company that recently purchased the Bridehead Estate in Dorset. Earlier this summer they shut off public access and brought fear of eviction to the residents whose tenancies are tied to the estate. A perusal through one of Belport’s many subsidiary company accounts for Adlington Hall, reveals that under ‘financial risks and mitigations for the investment’, “the business plan is to agree lease surrenders with long notice periods to maintain rental income while planning opportunities are explored.” In some cases, the old and the new are being brought together – and finding political expression. When Cirencester Park was paywalled last year, prompting a major response from our campaign, we were intrigued to discover that the Bathurst Estate’s former development director was Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK. His tenure oversaw a lucrative property deal whereby 300 acres of the Estate were sold for development. Yet since the proceeds of the sale were placed in an offshore trust based in Bermuda, they would avoid the associated capital gains tax. Perhaps they borrowed the idea from Lord Salisbury (Robert Gascoyne-Cecil), who in 2021 also tried to remove public access from his estate at Hatfield House. The family had previously “relocated” 2,000 acres of their English landholdings into an offshore trust in Jersey. The primary beneficiaries of the Tice deal - the Bathursts - have further form when it comes to access. Leafing through the archives of the now defunct Countryside Agency, we found letters from the late Earl Bathurst objecting to the nascent Countryside and Rights of Way Act (introducing a partial right to roam to England) on the grounds that - among other things - “the principle of dedicating public access in perpetuity over private land is totally unacceptable”. Ironically, this was precisely the intention of his ancestor who purchased the land in the first place (mostly with proceeds from the slave trade), who presented the now paywalled park as a gift to the people of Cirencester. While the actual land of England is reduced to tax-deductible assets and private retreats for the super-wealthy, perhaps it’s fitting that those responsible are also busy fencing off Englishness itself, and selling it back to us draped in a cheap plastic flag. New DEFRA Secretary Last month we shared news of an impending Green Paper on access reform, due for open consultation this autumn. Since then, Angela Rayner’s departure from the government prompted a reshuffle and we now have a new DEFRA Secretary in post, Emma Reynolds – the tenth in ten years! As a result, the consultation has been delayed. Her inaugural speech at Labour conference did touch on access, noting that “a walk in the woods, a hike over the hills, a dip in the sea. These are the things that make life worthwhile. These are the things that make us proud to be British” and she invoked “the Kinder Scout trespassers led by workers from Sheffield and Manchester who fought and won the right to enjoy nature”. We have written to her suggesting ways these words might be made more than tokenistic… APPG Enquiry In the meantime, steady progress is being made on other fronts. The recently established APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) on Outdoor Recreation and Access to Nature has released the results of its first inquiry, with a strong headline call for the expansion of statutory rights of access, alongside other measures to improve the public’s access to nature. We submitted detailed evidence to the enquiry and are pleased this was at least partly reflected in the conclusions. AFFLO on Farmarama Podcast Chris Jones is a dairy farmer based in Cornwall and a member of our Access Friendly Farmers and Landowners group (AFFLO). If you’re in need of a lift, listen to Chris talk passionately about his experiences of being part of this group, as well as how he sees the campaign in the context of his work - he articulates beautifully the challenges, opportunities and responsibilities for landowners and farmers. Give it a listen (from 18:45 minutes) and pass it on! (Temporary!) goodbye to Jess, Welcome to Holly Jess, who leads our social media, is leaving us for four months while she hikes the entire length of Aotearoa! While Jess communes with the wood elves we’re delighted that Holly Astle, one of the powerhouses at Right to Roam Kernow, will be stepping into her boots. Holly is a nature illustrator, graphic designer and an experienced environmental campaigner. She’s also been involved with Right to Roam since our very first trespass. Welcome Holly! Local Group Updates Our local groups are incredibly busy - lots of events are in the works with a series of river trespasses planned over the coming weeks. More on these to follow in our next newsletter. In the meantime, here’s a few to whet the appetite: Right to Roam West Yorkshire ran a packed-out Wild Service Festival last week celebrating creativity, community and connection to nature through talks, art and workshops. The festival brought together local residents, community representatives and campaigners to explore how acts of wild service can nurture both people and the land. If you missed out, West Yorkshire will be doing a river walk and trespass along the River Aire. Meeting 9.45am for a 10am depart, Sat Nov 29th - Apperley Bridge Train station, BD10 0NT. Route just under 4 miles. RtR North West will walk along the river Bollin on Sunday 9th November, meeting at 2pm for a 2-3h walk. Exact location to be disclosed near the date - check on their instagram for details. RtR South Devon will be heading out to explore the River Dart on Sunday 2nd November - email for more details. RtR Wiltshire and Somerset will be out on the River Avon on the 16th November - more details to follow, also on their Instagram and mailing list. Finally, RtR Norfolk are looking for more people to take the lead on organising the events and actions for their group. If you’ve had experience organising with community or grassroots groups or you’re good with admin and like working with people, then get in touch, please email Nadia: nadia@righttoroam.org.uk That’s all for now - more next week. Lewis & Jon --- We’ve been campaigning for bold new access legislation for five years, and with the help of the generous support of a few hundred subscribers - each donating around £5-£10 a month - we’ve been mostly able to remain untethered to the demands of grant funding and fundraising. If you feel you could become one of our monthly supporters to keep us agile and focused, please head over to our website: www.righttoroam.org.uk/donate

Earlier this year, we marked the anniversary of the iconic Kinder Mass Trespass with Kinder Rising, a day of talks, music, workshops, and a mass rally, culminating in a joyful swim trespass at Kinder Reservoir. It was a bold celebration of how far we’ve come, and a reminder of how much work still lies ahead. Now, we’re thrilled to share a film that brings that day, and that feeling, to life.

Dear Roamers, The trees are drawing the water from their leaves and there’s a distinctive dry rustle in the breeze. It may not feel like it but autumn is coming. And this year it promises to bring one of the most important moments for the Right to Roam campaign since it was founded. For some time now we’ve been lobbying the government to create a so-called ‘White Paper’ on access reform. This is essentially an instruction to the civil service to outline options in preparation for new legislation. Introducing one would be in line with Labour’s manifesto commitment to extend responsible access to nature, as well as its previous promises. In power they have (so far) proved... less assertive. However, over the past few months we have been engaging with civil servants on preparatory work for a ‘Green Paper’, which is perhaps the next best thing. Once launched, this consultation will gather a broader range of ideas and input from stakeholders and the public in advance of a decision about how to take reform forward. That’s where you, our supporters, come in. We know there will be pushback against any attempt to increase the rights of ordinary people. Groups representing the landed interest have lobbied hard against us before and they will do so again. But the reality is that they don’t represent what the majority of the public want: neither in the city, nor in the countryside. It’s crucial that they aren’t allowed to muscle out the popular desire for reform. It will be up to all of us to provide another voice. We don’t yet know when the formal consultation will start. But we’re laying the groundwork now, and will be providing you with as many resources as we can to make your own submissions as straightforward as possible. This may be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redress the widespread exclusion from our land and water, so we need to be ready to make the most of it. Prize Draw

Dear Roamers, Rivers shape landscapes and communities. They sculpt valleys, sustain ecosystems, support local economies and provide opportunities for exercise and recreation. Yet in England, most people have little idea who actually owns the banks of the rivers they love. Whether you can walk beside, swim in or even see your local river depends on who owns the land, and those ownership patterns are in turn rooted in centuries of wealth and power. This week we can announce that, for the first time, the ownership of an English river has been mapped. The banks of the River Dart in South Devon are principally owned by 108 landowners; a quarter of the river bank is owned by aristocratic and new money elites; 10% is owned by 34 corporations; 7% is owned by farms, and 13% by individuals. An incredible 38% is registered to addresses outside of the Dart catchment, and 20km is owned via offshore companies. You can read more about our research on the Dart here. The Spitchwick Estate, which is owned offshore in Gibraltar, have previously tried to prevent access for swimming at popular swimming spots on Dartmoor. Laughably, the estate also owns River Dart Country Park, which charges visitors for – amongst other things – swimming in the Dart! Charities such as the National Trust and the Sharpham Trust, and public bodies like the Forestry Commission and Dartmoor National Park, own sizable stretches, but taken together they still account for only a minority of the bank. South West Water, meanwhile, owns nearly three kilometres with no public access. The government has promised ‘9 new river walks’ in England to extend public access to the countryside, but hasn’t released details of where these will be, nor how they propose to achieve this. Without a rights-based approach, achieving meaningful river access will face significant challenges, and is illustrative of wider issues resulting from a reliance on a permissive approach to countryside access. As the Guardian made clear in an editorial published yesterday, each stretch would require negotiations with dozens—sometimes hundreds—of owners, many of whom are untraceable or based far from the river. The River Dart is just one example; the situation along longer rivers is likely to be even more complex. We’ve set the ball rolling with our work on the River Dart—now it’s your turn. Find out who owns your local river (you might want to begin with a small section!), how much of it is accessible and who governs that access. Write to us and tell us what you discover, and—more importantly—write to your MP to make the case for a rights‑based approach to countryside access. -- BMC Wild Camping Survey Our pals at The British Mountaineering Council are busy gathering takes on what wild camping means to the people who do it – what is the impact it has on them, and how does it connect them to nature, landscapes, and to other people. You can help by putting some words on their straightforward online form. The information you share will help them to keep pushing for wild camping rights in England and Wales. https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=9QUAYtljpE26wHf3RIrTD2ovS694NIlDtqslFCSlnaBUNUdLOTlDOTJVU0JMTFkwS0pKME1SOEE3UC4u -- Local group updates This Saturday, Right to Roam West Yorkshire are organising a swim and picnic - Bring a picnic and your swimming kit to Burley-in-Wharfedale train station at 11.30am. Kayleigh, Gracie and Briony from the West Yorkshire group also joined Jess, Amy and Dan to take the campaign message to the crowds at Deershed Festival last weekend. The group is looking for people to get involved in helping to plan trespasses or share skills - get in touch by email or on socials if you’d like to find out more. If you’re in Bristol on August 15th, why not get yourself along to ‘This Green and Pleasant Land’ at Windmill Hill City Farm from 7pm - and join Right to Roam Bristol for a celebration of the land through live music, dance, storytelling, folklore and talks. Looking a bit further ahead, Right to Roam Sheffield are hosting a welcome social on Thursday 25th September 7-10pm at Sheffield Artists and Makers Exchange – it’s a great chance to get involved with this establishing group - there will be banner making, drinks, RtR resources, music and discussion about the direction the group might take. Do get involved if you’re nearby! See you in the autumn! This might be the last newsletter from us for a little while while we take a wee break from screens and get out amongst it all for the month of August (we’ll still be posting on socials and we’ll be checking our inbox if you miss us and want to write). We’ve got some exciting plans in the works which we’ll be sharing with you in due course, and we’ll be needing your support more than ever as we approach a government consultation on access to the countryside in the autumn. Lots more on that to come. In the meantime, have a great summer. Lewis, and the Right to Roam team P.S. We’ve made the decision not to rely on grants or spend money on expensive office spaces; nor do we plan to be around forever. We put everything we have into one goal. If you can afford to become a regular supporter to keep us going, head over to righttoroam.org.uk/takeaction. -- For the latest campaign updates, follow us on Instagram & Bluesky To get involved with campaign action, check out our website here. Want to become a Right to Roam supporter? Head here.

Dear Roamers, Deep in Dorset chalk country, people are asserting their right to belong. After seven generations of the Williams family’s ownership of the 2000 acre Bridehead Estate, along with 32 tenanted houses, and a long history of public access to the beloved grounds, the new owners - asset management firm, Belport Ltd - shut the public out. News began to spread of possible evictions. A place of peace, with a change of owner, became a place of deep uncertainty. On Saturday 100 of us climbed the wall and gathered to hear beautiful words from the writer and poet Louisa Adjoa Parker, Right to Roam’s Amy-Jane Beer, our poet in non-residence Daniel Grimston, and local writer Kevan Manwaring. We picnicked listening to music from Lisa Rowe, Chris Dance and Aidan Simpson and shared words of gratitude, love and frustration - many of which found their way into the visitor book in the village church. Above us, the energetic swirl of house martins was punctuated by a hunting hobby, while beyond the newly risen River Bredy gently flowed in its chalk bed, adorned with water crowsfoot. Permission withdrawn - after years of laughing, playing, meeting, wondering, proposing, vowing, scattering, loving, living and assuming that for no reason would anyone be denied the same; yet there we were, defying denial, and for a day more we marked our right to belong. So many thanks to the wonderful crew of local folks who love this place who helped us to organise the day -- our inbox is filled with similar examples from across the country. It is an illustration of the tragic shortcomings of permissive access where - on the landowners whim - access can be revoked even when generations before have been welcomed. If you’re interested in being part of the emerging Dorset Right to Roam group and supporting us in our work to bring about much needed access reform, please email tom@righttoroam.org.uk. — Report a micro enclosure Not all enclosures make headlines like Bridehead. Many often go unnoticed outside of the communities they affect. Small scale closures happening in quiet corners of the country hoping to go unnoticed and unchallenged. But put together, every locked gate, rerouted path and ‘keep out’ sign amounts to a significant erosion of our access rights. These stories deserve to be seen. They deserve to be acknowledged, talked about, and taken seriously. Their loss deserves our attention. That’s why we have created a simple micro enclosure reporting form. We want to collect stories of as many of these enclosures as we can. We can’t hold an event for every single closure, but we can shine a light on them. Help us map what is being lost by reporting a closure near you. You can use the form below, or if you prefer - simply reply to this email. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc5ju5yL3ka7Nhne_vf-4GOnE_WR7-abEw7f5gxhZHfku-ddA/viewform Additionally, if you know of other estates such as Bridehead which have been purchased by asset management companies like Belport, let us know. That’s all for now - next week we’re taking a plunge into water. Until then, take care. Lewis and Jess, On behalf of the Right to Roam team -- For the latest campaign updates, follow us on Instagram & Bluesky To get involved with campaign action, check out our website here. Want to become a Right to Roam supporter? Head here.

Dear Roamers, Silently, anonymously, signs appeared on all three gates to the Bridehead estate: “Permissive access will be withdrawn.” No explanation, no contact, just a promise that decades of welcome would end. On the 2nd of June the gates were padlocked. Over sixty years of shared joy silenced. Bridehead has long been a place of family memories: children playing below the waterfall, friends picnicking by the lake, walkers pausing beneath the great serpentine limbs of the ancient cedar. The visitor book in Littlebredy church captures the heartbreak: “I’ve been bringing my son here since he was 18 months old and today for one last visit - he is now 16”; “We will miss this lovely peaceful place, we’ve been visiting since the early 1980s”; “This place is so special - it’s a tragedy that it won’t be shared with those who value it so much”; “One last visit.” And finally: “We came too late. We are no longer allowed into the grounds.” The Bridehead Estate, including the entire village of Littlebredy, was sold by the Williams family late last year to Belport Ltd, who have reportedly acquired it on behalf of an anonymous client. With the purchase, Belport took ownership of land that has come with a custom of access stretching back generations, along with the memories and emotions which people connect to places they love. They also took on responsibility for an entire community whose lives are lived in this valley: people whose tenancies are tied to the estate, and the plants and animals who call this valley home. Among the farewells sit two telling lines: “Thanks so much to the Williams family for their generosity in sharing the beauty of Bridehead with others”. and then, “I hope the new owners still allow for [the Estate] to be shared”. Two faces of landed power - generosity and greed; two ways to wield privilege. When the latter takes hold, we see the tragic shortcomings of permissive access: what is granted can be removed overnight, at the whim of hidden wealth. Bridehead is no outlier; our inbox testifies to similar stories happening across England and Wales. Yet, in spite of all of this history and custom, and the reality of homes and lives, Belport’s actions are entirely legal. They do not have to behave as the Williams family have done, and people are left with no recourse but to plead with them to reconsider their actions. For many months and amongst much uncertainty and worry, Belport issued no public statement nor responded to requests from journalists for clarity. Beyond the red signs, no one knew what was happening. Only following a razor-sharp article by George Monbiot last week were they forced to respond: they issued a statement citing public safety concerns and that access might resume “if certain issues can be addressed”. Making a noise clearly got their attention, although we’d love to know what those health and safety concerns are, and to see a timeline for reopening. In the meantime, this Saturday we will trespass peacefully together into the estate grounds in celebration of natural beauty and people’s connection to place; and in defiance of the anonymous power deciding who belongs in the countryside. --- Love Your River It’s two years since our first #LoveYourRiver event which highlighted the paucity of river access in England and role-modelled just some of the ways access can help our cherished waterways. We’d love to say things have got better, but that’s not the case. Our legal rights to access flowing water in the country still cover less than 4% of our rivers. And every one of them is polluted with sewage or agrochemicals and effluents, or both. They are canalised and culverted, disdained when they should be loved. Every English river should be a cherished and shared asset and a joint responsibility. Only access reform will give us the rights we need, only a right to roam, paddle and swim our rivers will give us the right to meet them, to know them, to love then and to care for them. So, a simple question and a simple act of connection for you this month. Who is your river? Do you know the waters that flow nearest to you home? They might be closer than you think. Go and meet your river. Ask how they are doing. Ask what they need. Ask how you might serve them. And share what you find. -- Join a local group You can find out about your closest local group by looking at a map here. If there’s not one close to you and you’re interested in setting one up, please email tom@righttoroam.org.uk. Happy roaming, Right to Roam For the latest campaign updates, follow us on Instagram & Bluesky To get involved with campaign action, check out our website here. Want to become a Right to Roam supporter? Head here.

Dear Roamers, We wrote to you last week hot on the heels of the historic Supreme Court ruling on Dartmoor, and since then we’ve seen a full sweep of coverage across print and online media, firmly placing public access back on the agenda. It’s always felt odd that Dartmoor is the only place in England and Wales where there’s a legal right to wild camp - a mere 0.2% of England’s land area. It’s a quirk as extraordinary as it is arbitrary. Following last week’s ruling, the high water mark for access in England and Wales is now unmistakably clear. Yet, while rights have been affirmed on Dartmoor, the stark deficiencies elsewhere are more apparent than ever. Emerging from the Dartmoor verdict, calls are growing louder for greater rights across the country. What better vindication for Dartmoor’s 40 years of established legal rights than the CEO of Dartmoor National Park Authority himself now urging other national parks to adopt similar rights. The Open Spaces Society have also stepped up their calls for the Glover Review’s recommendation for every child to experience a night under the stars a reality. Ironically, Alexander Darwall’s botched legal challenge has only amplified the national conversation around access rights. Yet, while the conversation has been focused on national parks, the reality for the majority of people is that these places do not constitute the local. As a campaign we’ve always been motivated by personal everyday connection; by meaning-making in our nearby countryside. For access to truly work for everyone, it must be universal and equitable - free from arbitrary exclusions, and with sensible exceptions clearly defined. The current model is simply unfit for purpose, lacking both clarity and legitimacy, and remains vulnerable to challenge and erosion. This is a pivotal moment for the Right to Roam campaign - we’ve won on Dartmoor, and now we must secure these rights on behalf of the entire country. Access is back in the spotlight, and the Government’s pledges to establish nine new river walks and three new forests are looking increasingly inadequate. We’re often badgering you to write to your MP, but that request is now more important than ever. In the words of the Supreme Court, the Dartmoor case was “absurd”. Now it’s time for politicians to see just how absurd the situation is elsewhere. Bridehead Unvisited Now, if you happened to purchase a 2,000-acre estate in rural Dorset, complete with an entire village, six farms and a cricket pitch, you might not start your innings as a landlord by revoking longstanding public access to grounds cherished by locals and visitors alike. You might also reflect on the history of the estate, acquired in the 1700s with wealth derived from the colonial exploitation of the East India Company, and recognise the responsibilities that accompany such a legacy. Perhaps the presence of remarkable ancient trees, the source of the River Bride, and Dorset’s only waterfall might sway your decision in favour of continued public access. Unfortunately, as reported by the Guardian today, things have played out rather differently in this corner of England. The asset management company Belport, acting for an unnamed wealthy client, purchased the Bridehead Estate late last year - and from this Monday 2nd June, permissive access will cease. The Bridehead grounds are peaceful and beautiful. But their accessibility and popularity arises in a wider context of enclosure. The estate lies within the Dorset National Landscape, where just 5% of land has a right to roam. The Bridehead grounds are an oasis in a desert of access. It’s an all-too-familiar story. Our message to Belport and their wealthy client is clear. Closing Bridehead isn’t just disappointing, it’s an affront to local communities, history and accountability. Keep Bridehead open. If you have been affected by the closure, please email nadia@righttoroam.org.uk - and watch this space for what we’re planning next... Join a local group You can find out about your closest local group by looking at a map here. If there’s not one close to you and you’re interested in setting one up, please email tom@righttoroam.org.uk. See you out there, Lewis on behalf of the Right to Roam team For the latest campaign updates, follow us on Instagram & Bluesky To get involved with campaign action, check out our website here. Want to become a Right to Roam supporter? Head here.

Dear Roamers, The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of wild camping on Dartmoor. A right that was under threat has been upheld. For now, the last place in England where people can legally sleep under the stars, without payment or permission, remains open to all. This is a powerful and heartening moment. But it’s also a wake-up call. While Dartmoor has been defended, this case has exposed just how fragile and limited our access to nature truly is. That a single wealthy landowner could challenge, and nearly overturn, generations of public access speaks volumes about the imbalance in our system. It should never have come down to a courtroom. But it did, and that tells us everything we need to know. Now, it’s time for meaningful, lasting change. We need new legislation to restore, protect, and expand our right to responsibly roam, swim, and wild camp across England, not just on Dartmoor, but through forests, along rivers, over hills, and in wild spaces nationwide. We draw inspiration from the freedoms enjoyed for decades in Scotland and Scandinavia. And we’re committed to making that vision a reality here. The Right to Roam campaign is leading that fight - and we’re just getting started. WHAT’S NEXT? Join our rally on Dartmoor The Stars Are For Everyone and Right to Roam have been planning our response, and we’ve organised a rally for this coming Bank Holiday Monday the 26th May. If you are able, get yourself down to Dartmoor to raise your voices in support of access to the countryside and for the right to sleep under the stars. Check out the Eventbrite for more information. We believe this is a once in a generation chance to push access to the top of the political agenda - see you on Dartmoor! Become a regular donor to the Right to Roam campaign We’re a tiny team run on a shoestring budget with one goal: to change the law in support of greater public access to the countryside. But we know we won’t get access reform overnight. Darwall has demonstrated the entrenched and powerful landed interests we’re up against. Yet we wouldn’t be in this if we didn’t think this campaign was winnable - and we are winning. But, we need your support. We are almost entirely funded by regular individual donations. We now need to massively ramp up our campaigning - and we need your help. Please chip in here. Keep access at the top of your MP’s mailbag So many of you have been sharing with us your MP responses to your letter demanding better access to the countryside. We know from talking to MPs and other campaigners that writing to political representatives is so incredibly important - it keeps the issue live and real for those who speak on our behalf in the halls of power. Please, keep going. Pester, needle, and demand. This is your right and their duty. Access is in the news, and it should be at the top of politicians’ minds. Let’s make that the case. Thank you to all of you who write about access to your MPs, and if you haven’t already done so, please do. Join a local group You can find out about your closest local group by looking at a map here. If there’s not one close to you and you’re interested in setting one up, please email tom@righttoroam.org.uk. In recent months new West Midlands and Suffolk Right to Roam groups have launched. You can enquire to help or join their mailing lists by emailing tom@righttoroam.org.uk. In hope and defiance, Best wishes, Lewis, Guy, Nadia, Jess, Jon, Amy and everyone in the Right to Roam team For the latest campaign updates, follow us on Instagram & Bluesky To get involved with campaign action, check out our website here. Want to become a Right to Roam supporter? Head here.