Almost 100 places in the countryside “have less than one hectare of right to roam the land”

Almost 100 rural constituencies in England have less than a hectare of right to roam land, an analysis has found.

The Right to Roam campaign looked at Natural England maps alongside the latest constituency boundaries to identify land that is accessible to the public under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act.

The law, passed in 2000, gave people the right to walk on certain types of landscape or ‘access land’, namely uplands, moors, heaths, lowlands and moors, covering around 8% of England.

But many of these landscapes are highly fragmented, leaving some access lands stuck in a “sea” of other types of landscapes where the public has no legal right to go.

Right to Roam said it excluded these “access islands” from its analysis because the public cannot reach them.

The group found that 96 rural places have less than one hectare of right to roam land, calling these areas “access deserts”.

Wirral West, Tonbridge, Selby, Yeovil, South Cotswolds and Stratford-on-Avon were among those constituencies, according to the research.

Activities for the Right to Roam asked the Labor Government to extend the public’s right of responsible access to the countryside.

They sent all MPs in the new Parliament an “access league table” on Monday, ranking each constituency by how much access land it contains.

Their analysis also suggests that 103 English constituencies have no right to roam per hectare, representing 19% of England’s 543 constituencies.

Although these are predominantly urban places, there have been increasing calls in recent years for improved access to nature for populations in towns and cities.

It comes amid the uneven distribution of access to nature in England.

Almost two-thirds of the allocated right to roam is concentrated in the Lake District, Peak District and Yorkshire Dales National Park, making them inaccessible to many, according to campaigners.

Meanwhile, forests, waterfronts and many grasslands are currently not accessible to the public under the Act, although they are more evenly spread across the country, including near urban areas.

For years, campaigners have called for England to introduce similar rules in Scotland, where residents have the legal right to access and camp on most land and inland waters, provided they adhere to basic rules such as not damaging the environment or camp on farmers’ crops.

Lewis Winks, from the Right to Roam campaign, said: “The public’s right to access nature in England is hugely unequal.

“Not only does our right to roam only cover 8% of the country – much of it is far from where most people live: there are 103 constituencies in England without any right to roam.

“The best way to tackle this is for England to follow Scotland’s example and legislate a new responsible right of access covering most land and water – with sensible exceptions for private gardens and crop fields, new rules for to control disturbance through dogs and a properly advertised outdoor access code.”

Mr Winks said it would be a “very popular” and “cost-effective” policy, citing a YouGov poll earlier this year which suggested 69% of the British public support responsible access to the rest of the English countryside. subject to certain exemptions and rules.

He also referred to previous Right to Roam research which found Scotland’s access model costs six times less to implement than England’s.

Mr Winks said: “We hope Labor will be bold and give the public a responsible right of access to our beautiful countryside.”

A spokesman for the Department for the Environment (Defra) said: “We are at a crisis point – nature is dying in Britain.

“The new Government is absolutely committed to restoring and protecting nature. We will also improve access to nature, creating nine new national river walks and new national forests for families to enjoy.”