Dartmoor was the only place in England where the right to wild camp without the landowner's permission existed, a right widely believed to be covered by the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985. Darwall's argument was that camping is not "recreation" so therefore should not come under the 1985 Act.
Darwall, a hedge fund manager and Conservative party donor, purchased the 4,000-acre Blachford Estate in 2013, becoming the sixth largest landowner in Dartmoor. He also owns Sutherland Estate in Scotland and has previously come into conflict with gold panners in 2018 when he introduced a £10 a day permit and restrictions over where gold panning could take place.
In January, a judge ruled in Darwall's favour and shortly after, an arrangement was made between the National Park's Authority and the landowners. This arrangement would allow limited camping in the park and in return the landowners would receive a not yet specified amount as a management fee, which would come out of public funds. Lawyers acting on behalf of the park are challenging this judgement, seeking an appeal, claiming that the judgement hinged on a narrow definition of open-air activities.
Both the ruling and arrangement sparked outrage and saw the largest countryside protest since the 1930s occur on Saturday 21 January which attracted more than 3,000 people. The protest was organised by the Right to Roam campaign, whose analysis found that 126,000 acres of Dartmoor have been lost to wild campers.
Both the ruling and arrangement sparked outrage and saw the largest countryside protest since the 1930s occur on Saturday 21 January which attracted more than 3,000 people
Labour MP Luke Pollard, representing Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, said that "The right to wild camp under the stars on Dartmoor is part of our ancient inheritance on Dartmoor". He continued, reaffirming the need for parliament to lock it into law. Recently, the shadow environment secretary Jim McMahon revealed that Labour, if in government, would extend the right to roam and enshrine wild camping on Dartmoor into law should the appeal fail.
In terms of green spaces in the wider country, Right to Roam's research has found that 92% of the countryside and 97% of rivers are out of bounds to the public as they are owned by private landowners. Wider accessibility of public green spaces has become limited or poorly maintained due to budget cuts. The New Economics Foundation compared the median size of a neighbourhood park between neighbourhoods built in the 1930s to ones built post-millennium and found that there is a 40% decline. Austerity budget cuts have led to a decline of 20% of parks described as being in 'good conditions' by local park managers.
Over 60 organisations in England have joined together to demand a "legal right to nature" in a Nature For Everyone petition. The petition's description mentions how the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the inequalities of access to nature. ONS statistics from May 2020 found that one in eight British households have no garden. Unsurprisingly, private gardens are the smallest in London, which are 26% smaller than the national average.
One of the Dartmoor protest attendees was Guy Shrubsole who runs the "Who Owns England?" blog. Shrubsole highlights that "Fifteen landowners own about half of Dartmoor National Park, and there's the contradiction - 'National Park', but it isn't owned by the nation." This criticism highlights a wider problem in England, of private landowners owning this country's renowned countryside.
