Dartmoor landowner wins court case to ban wild camping.

This was posted a while ago I was waiting for more info.

I suppose if it's your land you can do it, but it's not like it's on his front lawn, I can understand not wanting tents and small campers without real facilities but properly built Motorhomes should not present problems although I grant some owners don't always follow the rules, and I've sure certain communities who dwell in caravans and move about won't be too concerned with rules.
 
Really sad when landowners behave this way. In Scotland with regards to those using tents the landowner would be in breech of the land reform act, but the act does does not cover vehicles, so it does not cover motorhomes. We never wild camp down south because we never felt comfortable when we did do it. It’s time that other parts of the U.K. followed our lead. Obviously the land reform act does not excuse or encourage poor behaviour. But sadly during covid the behaviour of some was appalling, creating issues for us all now. I do appreciate that as owners of the land the owners have rights, but the problem is no matter were you are you are on someone’s land.
 
Land. You can't manufacture more of it.

What doesn't belong to the crown or the landed gentry has been continuously hoovered up by all kinds of big speculators.

We can't even park our vehicles legitimately any more in a lot of public places paid for by our taxes. :mad:😜
 
Fisherman said:
Really sad when landowners behave this way. In Scotland with regards to those using tents the landowner would be in breech of the land reform act, but the act does does not cover vehicles, so it does not cover motorhomes. We never wild camp down south because we never felt comfortable when we did do it. It’s time that other parts of the U.K. followed our lead. Obviously the land reform act does not excuse or encourage poor behaviour. But sadly during covid the behaviour of some was appalling, creating issues for us all now. I do appreciate that as owners of the land the owners have rights, but the problem is no matter were you are you are on someone’s land.
Click to expand...
I seem to remember a lot of bad behaviour around Loch Lomond that led to camping bans. The nc500 has also attracted a lot of negative publicity. It's happend everywhere though. Mainly stems from the pandemic I reckon. A lot of our tourist hot spots became overwhelmed with scrotes who could no longer go to the pub or on holiday to costa del ingleeesh breakfast.

Virtually all the wilding spots I used to know in the lakes have gone now.

We will always pay the price set by our lowest common denominator unfortunately. I bet Scotland won't be immune though either. Least for motorhomes.
 
barryd said:
I seem to remember a lot of bad behaviour around Loch Lomond that led to camping bans. The nc500 has also attracted a lot of negative publicity. It's happend everywhere though. Mainly stems from the pandemic I reckon. A lot of our tourist hot spots became overwhelmed with scrotes who could no longer go to the pub or on holiday to costa del ingleeesh breakfast.

Virtually all the wilding spots I used to know in the lakes have gone now.

We will always pay the price set by our lowest common denominator unfortunately. I bet Scotland won't be immune though either. Least for motorhomes.
Click to expand...
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs national park is exempted from the Land reform act from April, till October. But you can still park in recognised car parks.
People were fined for doing so initially, but this was later over ruled. But its important to highlight that the land reform act does not apply to motorhomes.
 
Tent campers drinking and leaving all their crap behind has been going on forever it’s not a new thing started during lockdown. Places like Glen Etive, Morar Sands have always had this problem and always will but the right to walk out your door and walk wherever we please and use our water ways and hills for our unrestricted recreational activities is something not just us Scott’s should have 🥃💪👌🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
 
This affects tent camping.

What I want is the right to park up with a vehicle in a public space, road, lay-by or vehicle park without signs telling me no overnight sleeping. Why is pulling up in a motorhome in any parking area classed as camping?

Car parks permit cars to park for 24 hours but woe betide should I turn up on my 4 tyres.

To me camping is something that is done in a tent. And I classify any unit parked up with erected awning or wound out canopy arrangement as the equivalent of camping in a tent, as you are living under canvas with a box attached.

If I have 4 tyres on the ground, same as a car, but using up no space beyond the footprint of my vehicle, why am I treated as a second class citizen just because my vehicle has onboard cooking facilities and a bed?

The landowner in Dartmoor. His win has no absolutely no impact on the use of my vehicle in the Dartmoor national park. I could not park up in a Dartmoor car park overnight before and I still cannot park up in a Dartmoor car park overnight going forward.

Rant over!
 
Last edited:
caledonia said:
Tent campers drinking and leaving all their crap behind has been going on forever it’s not a new thing started during lockdown. Places like Glen Etive, Morar Sands have always had this problem and always will but the right to walk out your door and walk wherever we please and use our water ways and hills for our unrestricted recreational activities is something not just us Scott’s should have 🥃💪👌🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Click to expand...
Of course it’s always happened, but it got a whole lot worse during covid.
And not just those in tents, around our way we were plagued with selfish car drivers parking their cars everywhere with no concern for anyone. The local bus was unable to get into or out if its terminus in Clachan, and the police were called litter strewn everywhere by morons who never ventured there before. All that’s left now are lots of double yellow lines that were not there before. Loch Tay was like a war zone when were there, I have never seen anything like it. Volunteers and Perth and Kinross cleansing dept had to remove tons of rubbish from the shoreline. Covid has left its mark in more ways than one, that’s for sure.
You can no longer park outside silver sands near Dunbar, all due to covid. I am sure there are dozens of other examples others could give. The right to roam freely in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs was removed from April to October because of this type of behaviour, god forbid it would happen anywhere else.
 
During and following lockdown campervan sales soared, but although Motorhome sales also rose it was not such a big increase according to Volksworld and manufactures.

This lead to issues especially in popular places such as Dartmoor and the NC500, We drove the coast after lockdown and saw some awful behaviour, we were abused by locals close to the NC500 and to be honest you could see their point.

At Skerray Bay I lost count of the number of camper vans parked up, but I also noticed very few actual motor homes, the issue being lack of on board facilities. People were stationary for many days at a time without access to bathrooms etc one guy was doing number 2s alongside the road into a carrier bag and no more than 20ft from his VW Transporter there was a pile of such bags along with other rubbish that had just been abandoned.

I don’t believe land owners should be allowed to change the law to stop wild camping etc, but I do believe people should be made to behave properly, and since the law seems to have no mechanism to enforce such then we can only look forward to more restrictions, however if the law can’t enforce good behaviour then I fail to see how it will enforce camping bans.

Near our house in Scotland camping was common around the Loch, but locals have now taken measures to restrict such by placing boulders in the way, This allows walkers to camp, but not vehicles, Im sure they can’t legally do so, but its many years since there has been any Police presence in the Glen and they will continue to do so. There are a number of wild camping / rural car parks but again signs have gone up stating no overnight parking, but 1, I don’t think they are enforceable and 2, who’s going to do so anyway.
 
Another consideration with regards to us and covid, was when the restrictions were lifted everyone who had been unable to get out, understandably went out at the same time. This created much greater numbers than normal. But then the same applied to cars and other modes of private. Completely understandable, we ourselves added to this issue. Also the amount of rented Motorhomes in the past few years has risen significantly, and we all know the problems this creates.

Getting back to the Dartmoor situation, this is a backward step in my honest opinion, as I said landowners have rights, but all land is owned by landowners. And they are a tiny minority of the population, in many cases large multinationals. Surely the common man or woman should also have rights as they do up here. Or is land only there for a select few.
 
Last edited:
caledonia said:
Tent campers drinking and leaving all their crap behind has been going on forever it’s not a new thing started during lockdown. Places like Glen Etive, Morar Sands have always had this problem and always will but the right to walk out your door and walk wherever we please and use our water ways and hills for our unrestricted recreational activities is something not just us Scott’s should have 🥃💪👌🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Click to expand...
I remember Glen Etive, Morar and many other places on the west coast in the late 50's and 60's. Didn't have a problem then. It all started to go down hill there when they put the new road in from Fort William, television reached the area and the Highlands and Islands Film Unit stopped visiting the local halls.
 
A lot of the rubbish etc is left by side the road campers in tents. One a few years ago going down Glen Arkaig in a motorhome we passed 4 tents just down from road near Lochside. Next morning leaving the glen we stopped & filled 4 full size black bin bags with rubbish that had been left there. In those days there always used to be a big industrial size bin at end of road end so put them in there. It used to be the same coming out of Knoydart road but the bin as gone from there now.

The exact same thing happened coming down from Hard knot pass one morning. But this time we where in a full car so had to ring Nat parks & tell them. As broken chairs, sleeping bag & even a tent left along with lots of other bits.
 
The right to camp on Dartmoor is for tent campers only and you have to be out of sight of any roads. This has full support from the National Park Authority.
It may have been abused on his land during covid but I bet littering doesn't happen up on the high moor any more.
When you take the size of the moor and compare it to numbers of campers it's tiny and always will be.
Another part of the moor has also been purchased recently with 'keep out' signs put up.

I think the National parks are becoming the new playground of the filthy rich and we just get in the way...

I believe the right to roam people are organising a protest soon.
 
Debroos said:
The right to camp on Dartmoor is for tent campers only and you have to be out of sight of any roads. This has full support from the National Park Authority.
It may have been abused on his land during covid but I bet littering doesn't happen up on the high moor any more.
When you take the size of the moor and compare it to numbers of campers it's tiny and always will be.
Another part of the moor has also been purchased recently with 'keep out' signs put up.

I think the National parks are becoming the new playground of the filthy rich and we just get in the way...

I believe the right to roam people are organising a protest soon.
Click to expand...
This could be the kick up the backside required down south. I fully respect the rights of farmers, small holders etc and their privacy. But when you allow massive land owners who basically own our countryside to get away with this it’s a bad day. There are far greater problems such as fly tipping going on to be dealt with. The fact that one or two idiots leave rubbish should not prevent people the right to roam. But this judgement would still hold if not one bit of rubbish was left, the rubbish issue is not part of the judgement. Because we care, we brought this issue up. This amounts to suppression of people’s rights, and not solely in Dartmoor, throughout England and Wales. It’s time you did what Scotland did, give people the right to roam freely, with conditions obviously.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top