UKC

Excellent news

"The legal right to wild camp on Dartmoor has been upheld by the Supreme Court, in a decision that is likely to reignite the debate over public access to land in England.

Judges unanimously rejected an appeal by landowners Alexander and Diana Darwall who said people should not be able to camp without permission from landowners.

...

The judgement centred on the interpretation of the 1985 Dartmoor Commons Act that states "the public shall have a right of access to the commons on foot and horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation" which judges said were "open-ended and unqualified" and "naturally includes camping".  

Full BBC article here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwywwq5zkqwo

Bloody brilliant! Almost restores your faith in British institutions.

Wonderful news! And great to see the BMC banner making an appearance in one of the photos in the article.

Do you know what support the BMC gave to the campaign.

Just comeback from a two week trip to Shetland and Orkney, and the rights to camp, up there are amazing, as an English person it took some getting my head around, not just in a legal sense, but an emotional sense, I was camping on land without specific permission. Speak to a Scot and they see the countryside in a very different way to me, and I think its great and something to aspire to.

A great result with far reaching consequences I hope. For far too long the medieval notion  that one person or a single organisation can "own" a mountain or wilderness and control who may climb or wander there has remained on the staute books. It's also good to see that the spirit of the Kinder Trespass and Benny Rothman is alive and kicking. Bring it on!!

A quick summary below.... the SW local area volunteers have been fantastic as well (all in partnership across multiple organisations):

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/en/bmc-vision-for-the-future-of-wild-camping

Great news, I hope costs ar awarded against the Darwells.

My curiosity here is around Darwall, must be a slightly odd character to think this was a good idea and something worth pursuing

Good. I shall have an alfresco dump tomorrow to celebrate.

A very "entitled" landowner I think. Former merchant banker or something similar in the city...

Won't the neighbours mind such behaviour?

I know the type, not wholly removed from my field, but still an odd call... if you win everyone hates you, if you lose everyone hates you + it cost a lot + even more people want to camp on your land because they have read about it. In City parlance I think he may have "mispriced" the whole thing.

Easy to imagine a bit of Streisand syndrome occurring now. I don’t see anything odd about it though. Darwall’s a rich w*nker. Rich w*nkers have been trying to keep the proles off their land since rich w*nkers were first invented; it’s a story as old as land ownership itself.

jcm

Trying to see his perspective.

It's his land, why should people be allowed to use it for free, it's just not fair.

Also, the money of the legal case will be not be so important to him, as being able to assert his power, probably used to getting what he wants, and is convinced of his own awesomeness.

Googled it a bit more and it seems he likes his shooting. If that is genuinely your big thing, I can see how people on your land displace birds and make shooting them harder, so perhaps this explains things as the prize would have been one of the best shoots in the world.

Still, questionable decision imho

Also a big donor to the Kippers and Vote Leave, I learn. Funny how many RW’s fall into that category.

jcm

He has form

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15885369.landowners-panned-charging-sea...

I welcome the decision concerning Right to Camp on Dartmoor, and that this is a small step along the road to genuine Open Access and camping rights across England  & Wales.

However my visit to the summit of Cross Fell on  Monday last was spoiled by the group that thought it ok to decorate the wind shelter with a veritable mountain of orange peel and banana skins, even covering the seating with their mess. This idiotic behaviour does little to further the argument for more open access, and provides ample ammunition for landowners and their kind seeking to withhold these hard won rights gained today.

Can we please ensure that no litter remains on Haytor after the Rally next Monday.

W*nkers like him tend not to care what other people think of them

From reading that webpage, I cannot understand what the BMC are actually doing, I see nothing about representations to Government or lobbying or that kind of stuff. If I understand you correctly though, the hard working SW BMC volunteers are also in other organisations, that are doing something.

BMC volunteers often wind up involved in other organisations because of their volunteering. I have become involved with an organisation called "All the Elements" precisely because it is a way of me getting access to expertise the BMC doesn't have readily available in house around recreational (I.e. none competitive para Climbing) to support a piece of work which I feel will be valuable to some BMC members. 

The Peak area has members who are part of the Stanage forum and so on because this enables their access and crag environment work to be more effective. 

It looks like the BMC were working with the Open Spaces Society (I would imagine Cath Flitcroft has been kept fairly busy by this, and should be celebrating if so!) to provide expertise to the National Park Authority:

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/en/dartmoor-wild-camping-timeline

It would be great to see something explaining the roles of the various organisations involved as lots of organisations have been involved and credit should be allocated where it's due. Darwall gets negative credit of course, particularly for complaining about environmental concerns while he wants to use the land to shoot grouse, selfishness knows no bounds with some folk unfortunately.

BMC have 2 staff members who as part of their remit work to form alliances with like minded stakeholders to campaign and lobby at Westminster and at the Senedd. Check out the Access Land film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOSYcbzOnZo&t=9s and the Outdoors for All campaign for examples of some of the campaign work. https://www.thebmc.co.uk/en/outdoors-for-all-a-manifesto-for-the-outdoor-se...

A lot of the BMC's work goes under the radar, sometimes for a very good reason. I am a volunteer access rep for the N Coast of Devon and Cornwall. Negotiating access with landowners, stakeholders and even conservation organisations can be a very sensitive subject requiring a degree of patience and diplomacy (not in my DNA, I have to say!) I get a lot of support from BMC officers, Council members and our SW area. In fact, at our last meeting yesterday, attended by our CEO we were updated on both government representation and lobbying amongst many other issues and actions. However the BMC does not promote its work on behalf of climbers nearly enough, although I do get the impression that it is changing.

Can I suggest you go to your nearest Area meeting, maybe get involved practically in many of the issues and events that are organised both locally and nationally?  The BMC can only function through its large network of volunteers supported by a small but equally hardworking staff. I can assure you that all involved do work continuously with other organisations to protect our environment and to ensure maximum open access to our mountains and coasts. Hey, I've even got the T shirt!!

It's always more nuanced than that when you meet these people. It's nice to think the rich are all Monty Burns-type figures and cartoon baddies, but that just isn't (always!) the case...