The government has quashed a review into the right to roam in England’s countryside, to anger from campaigners.
It was revealed last year that the Treasury had commissioned Lord Agnew to lead a review into access to nature, asking respondents for “radical, joined-up thinking” to achieve a “quantum shift in how our society supports people to access and engage with the outdoors”.
The move came amid concerns that the law of trespass stops people from walking freely around the country.
But now the government has said the review has been wound up, and it will not be releasing any results.
Campaigners said they fear that the right to roam over the 92% of England’s land that is privately owned and not available to access will not be realised.
Currently the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gives a legal right of public access to mountains, moorland, heaths, some downland and commons, alongside the more recently created England coast path.
Campaigners have asked for this to be extended to cover rivers, woods and green belt land. Some 97% of rivers are currently off-limits to the public, and tens of thousands of acres of woodland have benefited from public subsidy yet remain publicly inaccessible.
