<META NAME="KEYWORDS"CONTENT="Wales, canoeing, kayaking, river Wye, River Usk, Access Agreement, Negotiated, WCA">

The Welsh Canoeing Association says: Did you know that: • A range of evidence shows that canoeing and/or boating activity was historically permitted on all waters. • Under the modern interpretation of the law there are in excess of 300 rivers and numerous lakes in Wales that have no provision for public access. There is a lack of legal clarity regarding access rights in England and Wales. • In Scotland, and most places in the world, the public enjoy access to water as a right. All users enjoy the co-operative use of a natural resource. • The Scottish Land Reform Bill (2003) enshrines a right of access along waters, and commits users to obey an environmentally friendly code of conduct. This is not rocket science, but common sense. Why should the position in Wales be any different? The Welsh Canoeing Association (WCA) is committed to doing something positive to solve these issues. WCA is campaigning to secure legislation that: • is in favour of access to and along water • will place environmental responsibilities on user groups and • will remove the uncertainty that prevents participation 'Access not Process'

Recent Publicity and Activity  A petition was delivered to the Welsh Assembly Government on 10 April 2008. "The committee noted the size of the petition (nearly 10,000) and that there is strong feeling surrounding this. The committee noted that this is a long standing issue, that is getting worse. The noted that there is a lack of clarity in the law. They noted that the wording of the petition is to provide rights and responsibilities and that one requires the other to be effective. The committee is writing to the counsel general to gain clarity on whether and how the Assembly could progress legal intervention. They are also writing to WAG to find out what is being done." The progress of the petition can be followed on the Welsh Assembly Government website.   Western Mail 12 February 2008 The Land Reform Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament on January 23 and received Royal Assent on February 25, 2003.  Five years on, there is now the ability to pass similar legislation in Wales, to the benefit of the people and environment. The Scottish Government website says the Act "ended the historic legacy of feudal law and created a framework for responsible access to land and inland water". We are long overdue for such a change.   Exclusion of the public from the land, by a privileged minority, has taken place for centuries, at times leading to bitter conflict.  Restrictions on public access to the countryside are rooted in the 17th century enclosure movement, most often associated with changing agricultural practices.   Enclosure has also been cited as a means of social control, increasing dependence of the population on their aristocratic landlords and destroying the network of rights of way which formed the infrastructure of social communication in rural areas.   In Scotland, changing agricultural practice in the 18th century led to the highland clearances, dispossessed the rural population and broke up highland communities. Britain saw a change in the pace and pattern of enclosure in the 19th century. Acts for enclosing wasteland, common land and open fields became so numerous that public general acts were passed. Leisure emerged as a major driver of the process and sporting estates became a means of conspicuous consumption, changing hands at prices far in excess of the value of the land. Landowners attempted to maximise income from unproductive land by developing sports such as grouse shooting, fishing and deer stalking. In Scotland, the systematic development of Victorian sporting estates was accompanied by a new wave of dispossession of crofters, while in Wales, the development of leisure fisheries took place at the expense of traditional coracle fishing, with the result that the centuries-old practice, along with the unique communities that depended on it, has been all but wiped out in Wales. Enclosure of large tracts of upland and associated rights of way coincided with the rise in popularity of rambling.  Industrialisation and enclosure led many people to move into towns, and after a working week in industry, exploring the surrounding mountain and moorland was an inexpensive way to enjoy leisure, and escape from the urban environment.   Increasingly, working class mass outdoor recreation came into conflict with the requirements of the upper middle classes for exclusive use of the countryside for their preferred pursuits of hunting, shooting and fishing.  By 1930, every Sunday as many as 1500 working class ramblers headed from Manchester to the Peaks and Pennines.  The public were allowed access to less than 1% of the Peak District and 12 legal paths, far short of the freedom and solitude sought by ramblers.   This injustice was not sustainable and it was not unknown for ramblers who roamed further afield to meet with aggressive challenges.  The turning point in the conflict over access to the land came in 1932.  British Workers' Sports Federation called a mass trespass on Kinder Scout, following which several protesters were imprisoned.  The "respectable" rambling organisations had condemned the trespass before the event, but united in support of the campaign afterwards. Although the Enclosure Acts legalised the exclusion of the public from much of the land, no such process took place on the rivers.  Under Roman law the rivers were "public things".  A right of navigation on rivers was enshrined in Magna Charta, and no record has been found of this having been extinguished by statute.  Ironically, while the ramblers were fighting for the right to walk the hills, boaters were enjoying unrestricted access to the rivers.  It was only as canoeing as a sport became accessible to all, in the 1950's, that challenges began to be recorded.  In spite of there being no statute to support the argument, some landowners and country sports practitioners seek to prevent canoeing, claiming that it is illegal to use a boat on privately owned waters without permission. While the majority of canoeists enjoying their peaceful and environmentally benign sport are welcomed or go unremarked, sadly, it is not unknown for canoeists to meet with intimidation and aggression.  The conflict led the British Canoe Union to attempt to negotiate access to water, but nearly 50 years of negotiation have borne little fruit.  Since the Kinder Trespass, access for mountaineers has improved significantly, while the access situation for canoeists is farcical.   The experiences of the 19th century ramblers and the 20th century canoeists show the same pattern: highly restrictive access, selectively granted on a paternalistic basis that access can be withdrawn at any time. This is simply not sustainable in a democratic modern society. In a recent example in Wales, long-standing restrictive agreements on key rivers were withdrawn after landowners' and fisheries' representatives stated in a public forum that they would not negotiate with the Welsh Canoeing Association (WCA) if it continued to campaign for Land Reform.  WCA has since withdrawn from the few remaining access agreements it had, on the conviction that only land reform legislation similar to that in place in Scotland can deliver meaningful public access to inland water.   The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (Crow) opened up limited new access, but the much hailed "Right to Roam" is a misnomer. The fact that WAG are currently engaged in trying to achieve access to coastal land demonstrates the failure of Crow to deliver the solution, even for access to the land. Crow presumes against access, requiring a complicated mapping exercise for the identification of "Access Land", with redress to closure mechanisms.  Centuries-old rights of way will be lost forever unless added to the definitive map by 2025, taking us, in the 21st century, back to a situation comparable to the 17th Century enclosures. Access to water was not addressed by Crow. In contrast, Land Reform (Scotland) 2003 created a presumption of statutory access rights and responsibilities. The rights of those who live and work in the countryside, along with those who visit for recreation, are enshrined in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, to be followed by all. Seventy-six years after the Kinder Trespass, negotiation has failed to achieve comprehensive access to land and more than 50 years of negotiations for access to inland water have produced risible results. The attitude of successive governments, in failing to recognise the obvious, is baffling.  Large sums of public money have been spent studying the problem in England and Wales, but there is an apparently inexplicable refusal on the part of government to act on the findings of its own research. An explanation can be found in the composition and interests of government and its advisory bodies. Hansard shows that more than three-quarters of the debate in the House of Lords on the Deer Act for Scotland was dominated by sporting estate owners. Statutory responsibility for recreational use of rivers lies with Environment Agency. Examination of the agency's advisory committees demonstrates the influence of angling and fisheries, particularly in the higher ranks of the agency. The Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management has commented "For Government to have an objective that supports one form of recreational activity over another is inappropriate and ill-advised". While the campaign for Land Reform has the support of many organisations, representing a range of sporting and public interests, the issue is often presented by politicians and its opponents as an "angling versus canoeing" dispute; and government continues to insist that voluntary negotiation is the way forward, in spite of the dismal record of this strategy.  The attempt at polarisation avoids the real issue. Land Reform is not just about sport.  Access to the land has been used as a means of maintaining the status quo for centuries. Scottish Land Reform was as much about redressing the power imbalance between sporting estate owners and crofters as it was about access for outdoor sports, and has created a model for the rest of the UK to follow. Devolution now offers the opportunity to enshrine public rights and responsibilities in legislation appropriate to 21st Century Wales. Will we cling to the legacy of English feudal law, or will Wales be brave enough to follow Scotland's lead? By Pam Bell Posted to the 'Kayaking is Not a Crime' website 24/01/08:    He called me a louse, and said "Think of the grouse" Well I thought, but I still couldn't see, Why all Kinder Scout, and the moors round about Couldn't take both the poor grouse and me. He said "All this land is my master's" At that I stood shaking my head No man has a right to own mountains Any more than the deep ocean bed. From The Manchester Rambler: Ewan McColl   Benny Rothman died six years ago, on 24/01/02. His name means little in most paddling circles, but to those who love the mountains as well as the rivers, he will be celebrated as the leader of the 'Kinder Trespass'. To the growing urban working class of the late 19th and early 20th Century, rambling was an inexpensive way of recharging the batteries after a working week in the city. Much of the land was privately owned, and access restricted by a process of enclosure that had begun two centuries earlier. The large numbers of ramblers who walked the Peaks and Pennines were restricted to less than 1% of the land and had to keep strictly to a few, resultantly crowded, rights of way. Anyone who wanted to roam further afield had to apply for permission, which could be selectively given and withdrawn at will; a situation familiar to paddlers in the 21st Century. This injustice was not sustainable and a number of protests occurred. Most notably, in 1932, Benny Rothman led a mass walk over Kinder Scout. The walkers met with violent resistance and some, including Benny Rothman, were imprisoned. Prior to the demonstration, the 'respectable' rambling clubs had denounced the trespass, but united in support afterwards, and it was the catalyst for the formation of the Ramblers Association, which has campaigned for access ever since. Ironically, while the problems for ramblers were escalating, paddlers were enjoying unrestricted access to the rivers. Many accounts exist of people simply finding a river that interested them, putting their canoe afloat and exploring. William Bliss first paddled the Usk in 1894; his brother took the first of their many trips on the Teifi in 1912. Cubbon described in 1934 how he paddled the Dee from Bala to the sea. It was only as paddling became available to more people in the 1950's that challenges began to be recorded. Like the 'respectable' rambling clubs of the 1920's and 30's, the BCU tried to co-operate with landowners, by attempting to negotiate permission to paddle, rather than challenging the right of those who sought to prevent paddling. As the ramblers had done before them, some paddlers refused to accept the situation, and arranged paddles on disputed rivers; the most notable being held on the Seiont in 1988. I am happy to say that, as far as I am aware, no violence was shown to the protesters on that occasion. In contrast to the ramblers' campaign, the condemnation of the protest continued after the event and the campaign foundered in the face of a commitment to continued negotiations. The contribution made by the Seiont and other peaceful protestors, who did not believe that voluntary negotiation was the way forward, should not go unrecognised, nor should that of more recent peaceful protestors, such as those at Gelli Aur. 20 years on from the Seiont protest, the amount of access achieved has been negligible, the legal situation in Wales and England is still unclear, and while most challenges are unsupported by statute, paddlers continue to face challenges to access. The first bill for 'Freedom to Roam' was introduced in 1884, and re-introduced every year until 1914, failing each time. In 1939, 7 years after the Kinder Trespass, the Access to the Mountains Act was finally passed. Complicated access negotiations followed the Act, taking another 16 years to decide the route for the Pennine Way, 19 years to create the first National Park and 70 years to achieve CRoW. Although CRoW is widely hailed as the 'Right to Roam' it did not deliver the access needed, even to land, and failed to address access to water at all. In England and Wales, negotiations for access to land continue. In contrast to this cumbersome and piecemeal approach, Land Reform (Scotland) enshrining access rights and responsibilities of all to land and water alike, was achieved in less than 5 years after devolution. Given the simplicity and effectiveness of the solution demonstrated by Scotland, it is difficult to understand why the model has not been adopted throughout the United Kingdom. Large sums of public money have been spent studying the problem in England and Wales, but there is an apparently inexplicable refusal on the part of government to act on the findings of its own research. Environment Agency (EA) research concluded that the river access issue is one of "exclusivity of use". EA has a statutory responsibility for recreational use of rivers, and Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management has commented that it is clearly not in EA's mandate to protect exclusivity of use for one user group over others. An explanation for the reluctance of government to tackle the issue can be found in the composition and interests of government and its advisory bodies. The experiences of the nineteenth Century ramblers and the twentieth Century paddlers have been similar; landowners selectively granted highly restrictive access, on a paternalistic basis that access can be withdrawn at any time. The part played by the Kinder Trespass in changing attitudes to public access has been emphasised by public tributes from two very different sources. In 2002, Andrew, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, publicly apologised at the 70th anniversary celebration event of the Kinder trespass at Bowden Bridge for his grandfather's 'great wrong' in 1932: "... over the last 70 years times have changed and it gives me enormous pleasure to welcome walkers to my estate today. The trespass was a great shaming event on my family and the sentences handed down were appalling. But out of great evil can come great good. The trespass was the first event in the whole movement of access to the countryside and the creation of our national parks" (Ramblers' Association website). Early Day Motion 1173 23 April 2002 Lloyd, Tony That this House notes the 70th Anniversary of the Kinder Scout trespass on 24th April; recalls the commitment and bravery of Benny Rothman who led the trespass of 400 ramblers from Bowden Bridge Quarry, Hayfield, to the Kinder Scout mountain in the Peak District in 1932; believes this action laid the foundation of the campaign to gain access to mountain, moorland and other closed countryside in the UK; welcomes the passing of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 after decades of tireless campaigning by Benny Rothman and his supporters; expresses its deep sadness at his death in January; and notes that without his dedication and leadership thousands of square miles of British countryside could still remain closed to the public today. As the Duke of Devonshire rightly says: times have changed. In spite of this, the remaining bastions of exclusivity, notably the rivers, are jealously guarded. Recently in Wales, long-standing restrictive agreements on key rivers were withdrawn after landowners' and fisheries' representatives stated that they would not negotiate with WCA if it continued to campaign for Land Reform. When Benny Rothman led the Kinder Trespass in 1932, he was assaulted, imprisoned and branded a criminal. It is a great pity that he did not live to see this tribute in Parliament, but he was duly acknowledged in his lifetime as a founder of the movement that led to the creation of the National Parks and CRoW. In the early 1900's paddlesport was out of reach of the working class. If Benny Rothman and his followers had been paddlers, things might be very different for us now. So I'll walk where I will over mountain and hill And I'll lie where the bracken is deep I belong to the mountains, the clear running fountains Where the grey rocks lie rugged and steep I've seen the white hare in the gulleys And the curlew fly high overhead And sooner than part from the mountains I think I would rather be dead. From The Manchester Rambler: Ewan McColl. Article by Pam Bell.