Dartmoor wild camping is legal again

VIDEO: Landowners upset at ruling

It is legal to wild camp on Dartmoor once more.

The practice was banned at the beginning of this year after some landowners took action to stop people camping without permission.

They say they are protecting the environment.

Now judges have decided that backpackers can pitch their tents in about a third of the moor.

Lewis Winks, a campaigner with The Stars Are For Everyone, said: “A permission is not the same as a right – and today the court has seen sense and re-established people’s right to camp without needing permission in Dartmoor National Park. Fundamentally this means that access to a night under the stars on one of the UKs most iconic landscapes now does not rely on the whims of individual landowners but is owned by ordinary people.  We hope this will now serve as a blueprint for other places to follow suit. 

"Nature-connectedness in the UK is the lowest across the whole of Europe. We must extend guaranteed rights of access across the UK. Of course, this has to be done responsibly, no one seeks to destroy the very thing we so need connection to, but we cannot even begin to properly have those discussions until the rights now offered on Dartmoor are extended more widely."

Luke Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: "Wild camping on Dartmoor is an ancient right and I'm delighted the National Park has won their appeal, but this is not the end of the matter.  

"It is now up to parliament to guarantee a right to wild camp by extending the right to roam in law so cherished spaces like Dartmoor are protected for everyone.

"That is what the next Labour government will do, so why won't the Tories do that now?"

The attached film report is from BBC Spotlight.