DO WE HAVE A RIGHT TO ROAM?

I feel there is a fine line between the ‘right to roam’ and Nick Hayes’ views on countryside access in his article in your November issue.

Having been brought up in rural villages and lived in them all my life, my parents instructed my brother and me that it was courteous to always ask the local farmer if we may walk in his fields – always respecting where on his land he wished us to walk. Why now is it not considered the owner’s right to say who and where one may walk? After all, he has the great expense of caring and maintaining the land, be it pasture or woodland.

Until a time when everyone learns to close gates and respect our countryside and not leave rubbish and dog bags at the side of paths and hung in hedgerows, surely the landlord is right to withhold access.

R Gooling, Winscome, Somerset