Land reform in Scotland

• The Labour Party has promised to introduce a Scottish-style right to roam over the English and Welsh countryside if elected to government.
• How might that change your ability to enjoy the great outdoors and what lessons does Scotland offer?
• While the landowner lost on appeal and the right to camp was restored, the right to camp still applies only to common land in Dartmoor National Park.

Labour and the right to roam

• The history of the Labour Party and the right to roam are heavily entwined.
• His government introduced a new right to roam under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CRoW Act).
• These compromises weakened the new right to roam, which was not extended to more accessible lowland areas, other farmland or woodland.
• Opponents to a wider right to roam often cite the risk to the environment, farming and the privacy of landowners.

What can be learned from Scotland?

• This was until the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 introduced a generous and sweeping right to roam.
• This simplifies access rights and removes the need for complex signage and maps full of dead ends and no-go areas.
• The Scottish Land Reform Act makes an explicit connection between wider access and cultural heritage.
• And in truth, the people of Scotland have always enjoyed more generous rights of access through traditions and practice.