UKC

The Dartmoor National Park will decide tomorrow (Friday 27th January) whether or not to appeal the recent court decision on Wild Camping. Please consider signing the petition asking them to appeal. 

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/995/970/211/petition-for-dartmoor-national-...

Thanks.

Signed.

Although I now live at the other end of the country, Dartmoor and the Ten Tors was where I first discovered the outdoors many years ago, so it will always be a special place for me.

Thanks for that Mark.

After the recent court decision we've all lost out on a historic right, and in its place we're now offered a watered-down deal - one that it seems we're all going to have to pay for, and which could be revoked by landowners at any time. Before settling for anything that weak the National Park really ought to mount a legal appeal - they exist for everyone after all, not just the interests of a landed few. 

For what it's worth, I've signed (though I wish someone had proofread the petition before publishing it).

Thanks Dan, I attended  the protest last Saturday along with a number of local climbers. It was a friendly enjoyable event helped by good weather and I got to visit a part of the moor I’d not been to before. 

Following Tuesday’s BMC SW area meeting, I wrote to DNP on the area’s behalf urging them to appeal the decision. 

This feels like a dangerous compromise with the possibility of being too easily revoked. It came up at last night's NW area BMC meet too, though national reps (rightly) weren't able to comment on a technical discussion. Hoping that the pressure at national level is strong and persistent.

At the moment, DNP are taking legal advice on the likelihood of an appeal being successful and will be deciding whether to appeal or not at tomorrow's meeting. If they decide to appeal, it will cost a lot (£100k?) so we'll probably have to do some fundraising to supprt them. If an appeal goes ahead, it would almost certainly be at least a year before the process was completed so the best we can have in the interim is the permissive agreement that DNP has negotiated with the landowners.

If DNP decide not to appeal, or the appeal is unsuccessful, then we need to campaign for a change in the law. The good news is that the court case has put access issues onto the political agenda and at a national level, The Ramblers, supported by the BMC, are campaigning for improved access to the countryside. There is a good chance that this may well be in the Labour and Lib Dem's manifestos for the next general election.