This Government appreciates the potential benefits of wild camping

The Prime Minister's Office has responded to that petition and you can view it here:

http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page15826.asp

This Government appreciates the potential benefits of wild camping in England and its attractiveness to campers who already have the opportunity to camp in the wild in Scotland.

The Land Reform Act in Scotland allows for wild camping, but the land issues and the legislation in England are somewhat different. The introduction of wild camping in England would be a controversial issue, which would require both significant consultation and legislative change.

On open access land wild camping is prohibited under Schedule 2 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which lists all restricted activities. Therefore, new Regulations would be required to exclude wild camping as a restricted activity. Any change to the current rules on wild camping in National Parks and Ministry of Defence land would require new primary legislation.

The Government has no plans to allocate the necessary resources to consider proposals for such legislation at present, and is concentrating on following up the successful introduction of 750,000 hectares of open access land with new legislation on access to the coast in the Marine Bill, which is currently going through Parliament.

Here's my thoughts.

1. No mention as to whom in the "government" or "Prime Minister's Office" wrote this reply.

2. It states that the land issues in England (no mention of Wales) are different to Scotland. if you keep saying it often enough, everyone believes it.

3. "The introduction of wild camping in England would be a controversial issue, which would require both significant consultation and legislative change." Aye, you can't have a government do anything that would be controversial. Strange that us Scots managed it.

4. "new Regulations would be required to exclude wild camping as a restricted activity." Untrue. The Lake District National Park managed it with a few lines of text. Local Authorities can allow wild camping if they so desire.

5. The "open access land" in the Marine Bill will still preclude wild camping.

All in all, no surprise, just a shame that the government seem to be unwilling to change their tune. Now, I wonder how much business local authorities would lose if they illicit wild campers of England & Wales decided to obey the laws. But each to their own. I just love the nice comments that foreigners make about our access laws. Shame that the English government can't see it.

Keep an eye on legalisewildcamping.com for information on Stage 2 of the campaign.