Late last year, over 100 authors, artists, musicians & actors wrote to the PM asking him to extend Right to Roam:
https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/letter 

We've now had a letter of response (images below) from Lord Gardiner, DEFRA Minister responsible for access.

Analysis in this thread (1/n)

(2/8) Firstly, the Govt are not immediately offering to extend Right to Roam (surprise!). And most of the letter is simply restating existing govt policies.

But there are some useful parts where Govt accepts the importance of access to nature for its health benefits, e.g:

(3/8) Perhaps most interestingly, the letter mentions the 2019 Glover Review with its recommendation to “expanding open access rights in national landscapes”, ie National Parks & AONBs. The Govt *still* hasn’t responded to the Review. Will it adopt this recommendation?

(4/8) If this recommendation from the Glover Review were taken up by the Govt, it could mean wild camping becoming legal in other National Parks (not just Dartmoor at present), and greater access for kayakers, horse riders etc. But just in NPs, not the wider countryside.

(5/8) This part of Lord Gardiner’s letter will be of particular interest to @BritishCanoeing @bc_benseal

“The Govt has no statutory role in enforcing voluntary access agreements” on waterways – er, that’s why we’re asking for statutory Right to Roam to be extended to rivers…

(6/8) This bit of the letter refers to the deadline in the CRoW Act to register all historic rights of way by 2026 – as @RamblersGB have shown, there are almost 50,000 miles of lost rights of way that need registering, and it takes years to do so.

(7/8) This bit refers to the review of the Countryside Code that @NaturalEngland are currently carrying out.

But as our campaign has uncovered, the Govt spends just £2k/ year on promoting the Code - small wonder that few people know what it says. That has to change.

(8/8) So, some useful points in Lord Gardiner’s response to us - & if Govt adopts Glover Review recomm to extend access in NPs, that would be a good 1st step.

But clearly a way to go to get Govt to extend Right to Roam! – so pls sign up to our campaign: https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/