Momentum building for Scottish-style land access rights in England, says film

Anger and momentum are building for Scottish style rights of access to mountains, meadows, rivers and woodlands in England where the public is allowed on just 8% of land, a new documentary suggests. Our Land , a film whose title is a nod to the protest song by Woody Guthrie, explores the rise of the right to roam movement in England. Confrontation during the Kinder Scout mass trespass in 1932. Photograph: Don McPhee/The Guardian The movement, which began five years ago, uses tactics learned from early 20th-century campaigners, whose mass trespass on Kinder Scout in the Peak District in 1932 was seen as a catalyst for change, marking a shift in public opinion. The documentary, directed by Orban Wallace, follows campaigners as they take members of the public on smaller mass trespasses on private land in England, and interviews landowners from Devon to Scotland. Wallace said: “I hope this film will be a deep listening exercise for the country and start an informed conversation. No one is having that discussion at the moment, people are on opposing sides.” In the last two years, those campaigning for public rights to be extended, say the momentum has built. A catalyst was the battle to keep wild camping rights on Dartmoor in Devon, after landowners won a high court ruling that gave them the right to remove campers from their 1,600-hectare (4,000-acre) estate on the southern part of the moor. …