Department of Transport, via Slow Ways. It's been quoted here as well: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The experience highlighted an issue far wider than a single estate. England has around 1,500 rivers, and many people still lack safe or simple access to their local waterways. We want the chance to know and appreciate the rivers that run through our own communities.
📷 Paul Timlett

Unable to cross the river to join a footpath on the far side, some members of the group waded across to the Great Island and continued along the bank, reflecting on the tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

They trespassed land on the Longford Estate, home to the Earl and Countess of Radnor, an estate spanning 16,000 acres and 13 miles of double riverbank. Although the Longford Estate presents itself as community-minded, the group felt a valuable contribution would be to improve access to nature here.

Joined by a few members from the Sheffield group, they drew attention to the shortcomings of the Government’s proposal for just nine designated river walks announced last year. A legislative change of a right to roam, one that allows responsible access, would be cheaper, simpler, and far fairer.

Our Access Friendly Farmers and Landowners (AFFLO) , provide a brilliant counternarrative to the CLA rhetoric, full of nuance and insight from sympathetic land managers who are helping us work out how a right of responsible access can work for all.

Permissive arrangements sound better than nothing, but create a confusing and insecure patchwork of access, where all power remains with landowners and none with the public. Time and again we’ve seen how permission can be revoked overnight.

Meanwhile, 100 pedestrians are killed and 1,500 seriously injured each year walking on rural roads. Crucially, where access is granted by right or by permission, landowners’ liability over injury is reduced. The numbers speak for themselves: giving people safe routes across land could save lives.

Safety is important, but blatant scaremongering is unacceptable. Government data shows that, on average, only three access users a year die on UK farmland, and just one within the last five years in Scotland, where they already have a right of responsible access.

Discussions along the way focused on how landowners and the public could collaborate by sharing information about sensitive habitats to promote responsible enjoyment. The group ended the walk at a traditional local swimming spot: technically trespass, precarious, but generally long tolerated.

The walk supported the national Right to Roam campaign and questioned whether the government’s “Nine River Walks” promise goes far enough, where we’re calling for a Scottish-style right of responsible access, including to rivers.

The event was not aimed at particular local landowners or angling groups, who do valuable conservation work, but sought to highlight how little of the Wensum is open to the public. Of its 75 km, only around 7% can be walked as of right, and just 16% in total.

Our Land is showing at a run of film festivals around the country, starting with Leeds Film Festival tomorrow (4th of November), which will have a Q&A after with Orban Wallace, Charlie Phillips and our very own Nadia Shaikh. To then be released nationally in cinemas from spring next year!

Blending historical context with present-day action, the film explores the deeply rooted issues of access, ownership and conservation, and asks the urgent question: who truly has the right to roam?