Enshrine in law rights to roam and wild camp in national parks
- Parliament:
- 2019–24
- Signatures:
- 37,765
- Responded:
- 24 Feb 2023
- Department:
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The petition
Pass legislation to protect people's right to enjoy nature, and prevent it being restricted by landowners, who we believe should not really be allowed to own land within national parks. National parks should be for all, and not turned into a commodity.
To allow future generations the opportunity to experience and appreciate the natural beauty of this country's national parks. Too many people have little to no experience outside of highly polluted walkways and paths, with little to no opportunity to see the beauty of the night sky. Many children have not seen the night sky in absence of light pollution before. The recent overturning of the right to roam on Dartmoor in favour of the privileged is unfair, and will only reduce these opportunities.
The government's response
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 provides the public a right of access to large parts of the English countryside including National Parks. There are no plans to change this.
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 provides the public a right of access to areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, registered common land and coastal margin in England. There are no plans to change this.
Our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) play a critical role in improving our health and wellbeing and we support the recent Landscapes Review’s vision of more beautiful, more biodiverse and more accessible National Parks and AONBs.
The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for peoples' health and wellbeing and is working to ensure this is both safe and appropriate. We committed in our Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) to work across Government to help ensure that everyone lives within a 15 minute walk of a green or blue space.
However, we also recognise that to restore nature, as per the environmental targets recently set out in the EIP, we need to enjoy its beauty responsibly.
The Government is delivering a number of policies to increase responsible access to nature including:
• Working to complete the England Coast Path which, at around 2,700 miles, will be the longest waymarked and maintained coastal walking route in the world. Over 2,000 miles have now been approved as England Coast Path, with nearly 800 miles already open. It will also create 250,000 hectares of new open access land within the coastal margin.
• Delivering the £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund to improve green space in over 100 disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the UK.