Fight for Right to Roam continues

It’s 90 years since the famous mass trespass on the Peak District hill of Kinder Scout (below) but the spirit of protest stays strong. Access to Britain’s countryside has improved – notably with the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 and Scotland’s Land Reform Act 2003 – but 92% of England is still legally off limits, and the Agnew report on access to the outdoors was quietly shelved by the government this spring. And so the summer has seen a series of mass trespasses, including one at the Berkshire estate of Richard Benyon, whose ministerial remit includes access to nature. Right to Roam is a group founded by Guy Shrubsole and Nick Hayes to campaign for better access, with a focus on rivers, publicly-subsidised woodland, downland, and Green Belt – the nearest nature for millions of us. Find out more and discover how you can help at righttoroam.org.uk – whether it’s write to your MP, trespass ‘peacefully and responsibly’ on your own or with friends, or join a mass trespass like the one on 17th September at Worth Forest in Sussex.