Oh, at last!! Whatever you think of the present Labour Government, Mr Meacher and department have done this. I can now walk on a mountain, BY RIGHT, NOT PERMISSION. I think this important. and I say thank you to them. This is all effective in this area of the country from yesterday the 19th.
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gives a new right to walk over areas of open countryside and registered common land. Walkers have been campaigning for decades for the opportunity to roam across wide-open spaces.
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 will give people a new right to walk, responsibly and subject to some common sense restrictions, over areas of open countryside and registered common land in England and Wales.
The Government is introducing these new access rights on a regional basis in England, starting with the South East and Lower North West on the 19 September 2004. In Wales , access becomes a reality in the summer of 2005.
It has not been easy to get this access from the land-owning classes. I attendended the 70th anniversary celebrations of the ‘Kinder Scout Mass Trespass’. In 1932, many were beaten and locked up for walking on mountain and moor, at Kinder Scout. There was a public outcry at the treatment of these young working class lads from Sheffield and Manchester, that eventually, Parliament ‘bought up the rear’ and in 1951, passed an act that created The Peak District’, the first National Park in England.
These guys were heros of mine. Direct Action in 1932, to make my life better now. Thanks guys!
Here are some more piccys I took of the day to celebrate this.
http://tash.dns2go.com/xtra/kinder_scout_vert1/index.htm
http://tash.dns2go.com/WVX640x480/Kinder_Trespass_Capstick640x480.wvx
Years later, I can now walk on a mountain, BY RIGHT, NOT PERMISSION. I think this important.
Countryside Agency http://www.countryside.gov.uk
Countryside Access http://www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk
Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000037.htm
Peak and Northern Footpaths Society http://www.peakandnorthern.org.uk
