Who will pay for the access free-for-all
The CLA in the North says that it is seeing an increase in requests for advice on property rights as growing demands for access to its members’ land enjoy the media spotlight.
National news items including calls for access to rivers, riverbanks and coastline, have run alongside stories asking why farmers keep livestock where people wish to walk.
This increase in activity has prompted Douglas Chalmers, Director CLA North, to consider the wider picture.
Mr Chalmers says: "People fully understand the concept of owning a house; indeed, this is often the yardstick by which they measure their own success. Yet this attitude often changes when it comes to other people owning or managing rural land, when it seems that everyone’s opinion should count and that everybody should have the right of access and use.
"To our members, their land is a business. It is where they earn their living, and it is also their home.
It is where they grow crops and raise livestock to feed us all, and where they manage the environment for all our benefit. Their economic activities are major contributors towards local jobs and the sustainability of rural communities. They should also be entitled to the same degrees of privacy and enjoyment as any other property owner, yet these facts are continually ignored by many highly vocal, self-interest factions who continue to demand increasing access to this land for their own enjoyment.
"As the membership organisation for the owners of rural land, property and businesses, we are increasingly busy advising them of their rights and responsibilities, and the complex legal aspects of allowing access on their land.
"Interest in the countryside is to be welcomed, but ’being interested’ is not the same as ’having an interest’. There has to be recognition of the property rights of private individuals. A high profile entertainer, described as a ’national treasure’, has called for open access to all our rivers. I would expect him, as a media professional, to be fully aware of the issues on both sides of the debate before he uses the vehicle of television - or more accurately a canoe - to make his claim. Some people demand the right to walk our entire coastline, regardless of the economic and environmental consequences and, to satisfy these minority wishes, millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being spent.
"There are always two sides to any issue. Much of our coastline, rivers and land is already available for leisure. Many landowners have provided, and often encourage, permissive access. They would willingly provide more to help establish a rights of way network suitable for modern society, but there needs to be give and take.
"We do not want more legislation. We should appreciate the public access we already have, and determine where it needs to be improved for the benefit of the majority. We should consider where people actually want to go, and their safety. If that means opening new paths or cycle ways, and closing those now historic and redundant, then that is good use of public money.
"We have to accept that this is a relatively small, densely populated country. Everyone would like the space to live, work or play where they want, but in England we do not have that luxury. We have to ensure that land can be used for its primary purposes, especially when the media is also warning that we could run out of food.
"Leisure is not the be all and end all. Our land owners and managers need to be allowed to use their land, to feed the nation and to provide environmental and economic benefits for us all."
