Campaigners call for right to roam on edges of private farmland in England

Give people the right to walk around the edges of privately owned fields, say campaigners seeking to open up more paths in the British countryside.

Slow Ways, a group advocating for more access to the countryside, said people in rural areas often have to walk on roads that do not have pavements, which can be extremely dangerous.

The British public appears to agree. A poll by YouGov found seven out of 10 adults (71%) thought people should be allowed to walk along the edge of fields that were privately owned, as long as they were respectful and responsible, and if the only other option was to walk down a narrow or busy road with no pavement or legal footpath.

Two-fifths of respondents said they were likely to walk more if such a walking network existed.

In England, only 8% of the countryside is designated as open access for walking, picnicking and other outdoor activities. This includes mountains, moors, heaths and downs. In Scotland, all of the countryside is open for access as long as guidelines are followed such as leaving no trace and not harming farmland. There has been a recent groundswell of public campaigns involving mass trespasses, which have sometimes attracted thousands of people, asking for a general right to walk across the English countryside.

“Going for a walk in the countryside can mean risking narrow lanes, blind bends and fast vehicles,” said Dan Raven-Ellison, the founder and chief executive of Slow Ways.

“According to the Department for Transport, two pedestrians die and 34 are seriously injured by vehicles on rural roads each week. The government can save thousands of lives and bring millions of people so much joy by ensuring there is always a safe way to walk.”

Slow Ways is calling on the government to develop an inclusive, extensive and easy-to-follow national walking network, including this proposal.

Raven-Ellison said: “While hikers would benefit from improved access, the people who would benefit most of all would be the 10 million people who live in the countryside and feel these issues day in, day out. Many people who live in rural areas are surrounded by fields, but effectively live on islands that they can only venture in or out of by car.”

The Labour government has now announced it will repeal a 2031 cut-off date for recording historical rights of way, which was set by the Conservatives.

England has thousands of miles of unrecorded rights of way, estimated to stretch more than 40,000 miles, which are well used by walkers, cyclists and equestrians but are not officially recorded or protected. The previous Conservative government had announced that all of them needed to be formally recorded by 2031, but local authorities had been struggling to meet the deadline. A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Our countryside is a source of great national pride, and this government wants to improve access to nature for people.

“We are committed to making sure the public access nature, from green spaces to forests to river walks, in a responsible way and we strongly encourage everyone to follow the countryside code.”