Government threatens to make criminals of walkers because of ‘mischief makers’
[10 March 2005]
The Government’s desire to look tough on crime prior to a
General Election is threatening to turn innocent walkers into
criminal trespassers on designated sites across vast areas of
England and Wales, the Ramblers' Association (RA) warned today.
The second reading of the Serious Organised Crime and Police
Bill takes place on Monday 14 March, with the RA urging the
House of Lords to make essential changes to the Bill so that it
does not become a tool that could be used to imprison innocent
walkers for up to a year.
Janet Davis, Head of the RA’s Footpath Policy Team, said, “This
is a clear case of the Government using a sledgehammer to crack
a nut. The Government claims it is intending to “attack the
particular mischief of people getting into Buckingham Palace and
Windsor Castle”, but refuse to limit the Bill to these and other
Royal residences. It is instructive that the Scottish Parliament
has removed these clauses, while at Westminster the Government
says one thing and does another.”
“The Bill raises the spectre of walkers being made criminals for
no other reason than the land involved is Crown land. Currently
trespass is a civil offence; this Government seems determined to
make it a criminal offence on designated Crown land of unlimited
size and for an unlimited length of time. Even more worryingly,
it would appear from the wording of the Bill that there will be
a presumption of guilt for anyone found walking on the land.”
“Currently the Bill could make walking a criminal activity on
huge areas of Crown land from Northumberland to Dartmoor in
Devon, and could even extend to the Royal Parks and parts of the
Thames Path in central London. That is clearly absurd and the
Government needs to rethink its intentions.”
The RA believes that changes need to be made to the Bill because
by trying to alter the law of trespass it represents a gross and
unnecessary intrusion into civil rights and freedoms. The
primary problem is not a deficiency in trespass law, and a far
more effective measure would be to improve policing around Royal
residences, not criminalising unsuspecting walkers.