THE RIGHT TO ROAM

 Dear Right to Roamers,

Did you hear the great news? In last Thursday's parliamentary debate on access to nature, Labour confirmed they would introduce a Right to Roam Act for England if elected - and said that their policy was for a Scottish-style right of responsible access.

We will introduce a Right to Roam Act, a new law allowing national parks to adopt the right to wild camp, as well as expanding public access to woodlands and waterways... Like in Scotland, Labour’s approach will be that our right to roam will offer access to high-quality green and blue spaces for the rest of Britain. We will replace the default of exclusion with a default of access". 

This is a great step forward - and everyone who's been involved in this movement over the past few years should feel justifiably proud. Huge thanks to all of you - to everyone who contacted their MPs ahead of this debate; and to anyone who's come on mass trespasses, set up local groups or signed our petitions.

But we're far from complacent. We're not naive - we know that pledges can be broken and there's a long way still to go to turn promises into law. We also know that now is when the real fight begins: that as a new Right to Roam Act begins to look like a possibility, its opponents will start to mobilise against it.