AN urgent legal costs appeal has been launched to help campaigners fight a landowner in court over access rights to Dartmoor.
The lengthy battle over access to Dartmoor continues in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 8, for the right to wild camp (also known as backpack camping).
Landowner Alexander Darwall, of Blachford Estate, south Dartmoor, opposes the right, claiming landowners should have more control over use of their land to preserve the environment.
He is fighting Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) in appealing the previous verdict which restored the legal right for all to wild camp in the national park.
The latest hearing will be the third round of debate for the right to pitch a tent which can be carried in a rucksack. The legal fight will be expensive, at about £400,000 to cover the three hearings, which the DNPA could have to pay if it loses.
Mr Darwall convinced judges in 2022 that the legal right to camp on Dartmoor (the only place in the country where it applied) never existed, despite a common assumption that it had been enshrined in Dartmoor’s byelaws since 1985.
However, last year the DNPA successfully appealed this verdict, with the court unanimously ruling in its favour. The latest hearing comes after Mr Darwall was granted leave to challenge this decision in what is the highest court in the land.
Campaigners for improved access, such as The Stars are Ours and Right to Roam, are calling for a new Right to Roam act, to enshrine in law a presumption in favour of access and wild camping across England, including national parks. Youngsters on the annual Ten Tors expedition at Okehampton benefit from the right and camping is said to boost mental health and self-resilience.
The DPA says: “Two million people enjoying backpack camping, cycling and walking without harming the environment. They get a ‘renewed sense of wellbeing, a deeper knowledge of our iconic wildlife and a greater appreciation of the importance of wild spaces’.
“We hope that the Supreme Court will make the right decision, and support access rights to Dartmoor for all, but we must also prepare for the unthinkable: our right to wild camp on Dartmoor being revoked. On top of losing vital rights to spend time in wild places, this will also mean a crippling legal fees bill for the DNPA, a national park authority that is already under strain from severe funding cuts.”
The original finding in favour of the DPA said section 10 (1) of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 confers on members of the public the right to rest or sleep on the Dartmoor commons, whether by day or night and whether in a tent or otherwise.
Mr Darwall is calling for all landowners to be compensated for having to give wider access, if he loses the case.
The crowdfunder can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/BackpackCampingAppeal