Right to roam in south west now just days away
[26 August 2005]
Access to some of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset’s most
beautiful wild open spaces is just days away. The
right
to roam will be launched on Sunday, August 28 at Venford
Reservoir, near Holne, at 10.30am by Kate Ashbrook, Chairman of
the Ramblers’ Association’s Access Committee and President of
Dartmoor Preservation Association.
Walkers will soon be able to legally explore areas like
Gittisham Hill in East Devon where there is no existing access
and Codden Hill in Barnstaple, which boasts views of the highest
points in Dartmoor and Exmoor. The south West is the sixth
region to be opened to the public as part of the right to roam.
Kate Ashbrook said: 'This is a great day for the South West when
at last we have the right to roam, freely and responsibly, over
significant new swathes of land. However, we do not stop here.
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act has given us much new
access but not as much as we had hoped.
She added: 'We are already planning our next campaign, of access
to the beautiful coastlands of England and Wales, and look
forward to working with the government and its advisers on this.
The South West is fortunate to have its coast path, but we want
to see a greater freedom to roam along the whole coast, not
necessarily confined to routes. There are huge opportunities
here.'
The Ramblers’ Association (RA) has been at the forefront of the
campaign for open access to uncultivated areas of countryside
since it was founded in 1935. The Countryside and Rights of Way
Act (CRoW) gives a new legal right of access to mapped areas of
mountain, moor, heath, down and common land and specifically
excluded cultivated farmland and gardens. It does not affect
privacy and allows restrictions for nature conservation and land
management.