Police had to prevent a farmer in the Peak District Park from ploughing open moorland in an apparent attempt to prevent public access under the new Countryside and Rights of Way Act.
Farmers, don't you just love 'em? One of our friendly old
'custodians of the land' had to be prevented from ploughing up
heather moorland by the police and representatives of the National
Park Authority, apparently in an attempt to prevent public access to
the land under the new Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act 2000.
The incident also has wider implications.
According to this
story in the Telegraph, farmer David Hague from Bradfield in the
Peak District, was preparing to plough some 50 acres of moorland at
Kirk Edge and Gibraltar
Rocks, when the police swooped. The land has been designated for
open access on draft access maps published by the Countryside Agency,
but if ploughed, would be reclassified as 'cultivated land' and thus
closed to the public.
The police were able to act after Michael Meacher, the environment
minister, issued an order stopping the farmer from ploughing the
moorland under a previous law, the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.
That Act prevents farmers from ploughing moor or heath land of more
than 20 years standing inside a National Park, without consulting the
park authority.
The land was "nationally important moorland" Meacher is qoted as
saying, and he could not stand by and see it lost. The order stands for the next 12 months, but the land may still be ploughed eventually.
More generally and worryingly, there is nothing to prevent
farmers and landowners outside national park boundaries from simply ploughing up
access land, exploiting
the loophole in the new act and denying access to the public.
Ironically it was in South Yorkshire that the Ramblers Association
recently held a rally to celebrate the first anniversary of the
Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CRoW) 2000. The Telegraph quotes
Nicky Warden, of the Ramblers' Association as saying: 'If it is the
case that landowners are changing the status of their land simply to
prevent people from enjoying the new access, we strongly condemn any
such acts.'
Meanwhile a spokesman for the Country Land and Business
Association rather ingenuously questioned any definite link with the
access issue. So it was just a coincidence? Yeah, right.
Clearly this is a loophole that needs plugging and quickly.
