The following press release has been issued by the Lake District National Park Association - under the heading of "Wild Camping". To my mind, wild camping is low-key, leave-no-trace camping. Obviously, what's happening in the Lake District is that gangs of louts are essentially wrecking the place, and in the process likely to harm bona fide campers in the process. Quite honestly, a lot of the stuff referred to in the press release is criminal damage, and therefore I'm at a loss to understand why the police can't take any action.
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With the hottest July since records began came a blight on the Lake District as wild campers ravaged the countryside causing damage, destruction and despair.
Weekend tent revellers have broken up farm gates and stiles for bonfires, left rubbish and beer cans, scorched the earth and used hedgerows and wall sides as toilets.
Lake District National Park rangers say they have been disgusted by wanton damage and the disregard for one of England's loveliest landscapes.
"We're only talking about a small minority," according to Chris Berry, whose area includes the honey pots of the Duddon Valley, Wasdale and Eskdale.
"Most people are in the Lake District because the love and care for the countryside. Unfortunately the few are spoiling it for everyone else with reckless behaviour that is completely unsustainable."
Banned by many official campsites, young single-sex groups are heading to car parks, lake sides and beauty spots for a night's drinking and tenting around a bonfire.
"If they can't find firewood they'll rip off branches and remove gates and stiles," said northern area ranger Graham Standring. "A wooden footbridge at Carrock Beck, near Haltclffe, was chainsawed and burned, which is bad, even by wild campers' standards."
Graham said although the area had not suffered a serious fire since a hillside blaze near Catbells, Keswick, three years ago, the risks from portable barbecues and campfires were significant.
"We've had such a hot, dry spell that the ground has been bone dry. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to realise the huge dangers. Even though we've now had some rain, the hazards are still there."
Last weekend Chris Berry came across a party of campers in a car park near Stanley Ghyll, Eskdale, who had lit a fire and strewn a "disgraceful amount of litter".
"By the time you come across these people they have often been drinking and can't be moved until morning," said Chris. "The police are very supportive, but with limited resources they can't always be on hand at the weekend.
"Although most people are thoroughly reasonable when approached, we can't get away from the consequences of irresponsible wild camping. Signs forbidding camping along Wastwater's shoreline were vandalised within 12 hours of them going up."
'No camping and no fires' notices have also been wrecked in the Mosedale valley, near Caldbeck, over the last few weeks.
Rangers say all they can do is appeal to people to spare a thought for the countryside and think through the effects of causing damage, fouling, leaving litter and lighting fires.
"Young single-sex groups"... I assume this means groups of lads / young men.
I can well understand why they're banned from many organised sites, but can also understand their wish to spend a night camped out round a bonfire getting smashed out of their heads with their mates. Just a shame it involves destruction of nature, property and the like (and I wouldn't fancy being the one asking them to move on).
I think "weekend tent revellers" is a far more appropriate term than "wild campers". Hopefully the police can find some way of reducing the problem.
People really need to be educated about minimal-impact camping. I can't see how this can be dealt with really but it's unfair to label all "single-sex" groups as hooligans.
Last week I went wild camping in Snowdonia in a very large group (16 Explorer Scouts (aged 14-18), plus 4 responsible adult leaders), so definitely not the quite the ideal that Paddy suggested but we made sure as little trace of our camp was left. The only sign that would show people had stayed there was the flattened grass. We are of mixed experience and abilities (some first-time campers with us, others who have been doing it for most of their lives, and a couple of ML-qualified people). I'd hope that this kind of vandalism doesn't affect our camping careers.
Ben - you could hide an army in the hills so long as it was done properly. (I dare say that armies on 'covert operations' do exactly that!) I've also witnessed the huge 'wild camps' that are set up during events such as the KIMM in the past, and gone back later and found no trace of their existance.
Roadside camping and destruction of property isn't 'wild camping', it's just a bunch of louts out to cause trouble, and their actions have repercussions for the rest of us.
Well that's sad to hear. As you say Paddy, some of those incidents aren't just 'careless' - they're criminal damage, particularly chainsawing a footbridge.
It's a shame the minority begin to ruin it for everyone else.
I see the attraction in sleeping outside, drinking with mates and playing with fires, but I also appreciate the fact that you simply can't really do that. Luckily I've had the last 8 years in Scouts to play with fires and make a lot of noise. Damaging property I feel is a consequence of some people having a severe lack of brain cells.
I guess having the lakes so close to Manchester doesn't help.
If this govt really was as eco-concerned as it claims, it would give the Police appropriate powers to deal with the offenders.
How about arrest, followed by confiscation and subsequent sale of equipment, impounding (and possibly sale) of vehicles, and community service (e.g. repairing the criminal damage), and finally a public apology to any residents and/or landowners affected?
If the offenders have vehicles with them, then, technically, said vehicles have been used in a crime. Hence driving endorsements/fines could also be applied.
Only after all this has taken place can the offenders be hanged by the balls from the "Welcome to the National Park" roadsigns as a deterrent to others of the same ilk. :-)
Sorry to have to say this but this has been coming for a long time. I firmly believe, as I have done since 2001, that it is part of a wider governmental strategy to crackdown on freedoms and keep people under surveillance as often as is posssible. Arguments from conscientious and responsible wild campers like myself are likely to have as much influence as calls from authorative quarters for public inquiries into wars, police shootings, or calls for Ian Blair to resign. ie, NONE AT ALL.
It's a bleak view but unfortunately it will prove right in the following years.
These stories of louts trashing the countryside are a clear case of Problem, Reaction, Solution.
BG, don't ra polis already have appropriate powers of arrest to deal with criminal damage? I don't think the location and gender of the criminal is taken into account by the law of the land.
Seems to me, there's too much jaw-jaw and not enough law-law enforcement. 4x "the criminal damage was done by a chainsaw wielded on a Friday by a single parent; so we need a law to deal with that". Methinks we need to support the polis and get more of them on the streets instead of form-filling.
The problem seems to be one of perception here. "Wild camping" conjures up images of a single person camped in a remote spot, coping with the solitude and nature.
Maybe they should use the term "Illegal camping" instead. Of course that would mean that "wild camping." would still be an element of it and would be just as illegal.
I detect an air of duplicity here though, maybe not intentional, but it is there never the less.
I equate it with the current anti speeding measures and the perceived persecution of "respectable, otherwise law abiding citizens."
They all want the boy racers forced off the road, but many then complain bitterly when they are caught doing "slightly over" the limit by a sneaky camera.
Yes, unfortunately a few morons get everyone tarred with the same brush, we have seen that with other debates on this forum, the 4X4 one springing to mind.
BUT,wild camping is no more legal than any other form of "illegal" camping, so we can hardly expect the authorities to differentiate between the degree of lawbreaking, no more than we can expect the "respectable, otherwise law abiding citizens" to be excused speeding fines in favour of the boy racers!
What do they say to these yobs? "It is OK to break the law by setting up an illegal camp, providing that you don't cause damage"
What next? "It is OK to break the speed limit, providing that you don't hit someone!"
You see the dilemma that they face? I do!
Having witnessed several grass and moorland fires myself during this hot spell, I can understand the paranoia of the authorities and that they cannot differentiate between the law breakers and the degree of their wrongs!
I think that the best course of action for "genuine" wild campers is to quietly get on with it and not to make waves. The authorities public face has to be as it is, but on the ground, the wardens seem to have the discretion and ability to tell the wheat from the chafe (chav).
I don't think that the Police would really help much in situations like Chris Berry is talking about because of the effort and time involved getting to the camping spot.
It would be fine if they were camping alongside Derwentwater, or somewhere else fairly accessible by road. But can you honestly imagine a bunch of policemen heading out to deal with a rowdy bunch wild camped somewhere in the central fells? And getting there in time?
I have often dealt with the aftermath of these "weekend tent revellers" by being sent up the fells to clear up the mess they have left behind. I remember a couple of years ago, myself and another Vol Ranger were asked to go and check the area around Blackbeck Tarn (near Haystacks) because a member of the public had reported seeing some discarded camping gear. We ended up carrying down two bin liners full of rubbish that had been left behind by an obvious large group.
It's not only the summer that we have this problem. It's all year round now. Whenever I'm out for a walk I purposedly avoid areas like Dale Head Tarn because I know that I'll end up having to cut my walk short and carrying off bags of the remains of overnight camps in that area.
As for not wanting to be the one to ask them to move on. Well, I have no hesitation. I know that I couldn't walk past a group making a mess of the place and not say something. Whether they take any notice of me is another thing, but it doesn't put me off trying.
Leading on from what Lorraine has said, I don't think it is so much a question of the Police being unwilling, they just don't have the resources, particularly in the more rural areas!
Wild camping is not illegal camping when permission has been given. The official "tolerance" of "bona fide" wildcampers implies conditional permission.
Roadside camping should certainly be treated differently to the "wild camping" most of us talk about and I believe the Scottish laws do this with a fair degree of success.
Im not too familiar with the locations described in the article but it sounds to me like the guys who do the damage don't stray far from the road. Surely rangers (and police?) do use the roads in the lakes and a night patrol on a friday (one bloke, one hour perhaps) would uncover some of the ilegal roadside camping.
Oh come on bearded, the majority of "wild camping" is illegal and done without the "permission" of the land owner particularly in the national parks for example, it is in that context that I mean!
(which is why I said that they maybe should have referred to " illegal camping" rather than using the phrase "wild camping."
It does not detract from the point however that the majority of wild camping would still be illegal and fall under the general heading!
But more often than not in The Lakes permission has not been sought or given to wildcamp.
The first thing I ask when I come across wild campers (not the well behaved ones, but the ones that I suspect are going to trash the place) on the fells is "Who gave you permission to camp here"?
I generally know who's land it is and whether they would be likely to give permission or not. Joe Bloggs from outside The Lakes probably wouldn't have a clue.
I remember coming across a bunch of people who were camping down the side of Ennerdale, in a picnic area. Not only had they driven their 3 cars down a closed track, but they had also set up 5 tents and covered the picnic bench with a blue tarpaulin. I came across them at 2 o'clock in the afternoon just as they had started to do some cooking on the open fire they had constructed from rocks. They told me the had been given permission to camp by someone in Whitehaven. I knew that wasn't true as it was Foresty Commission land and they would not have given permission, especially as Cumbria were on a "fire alert". I redirected them to the nearest campsite.
