Dartmoor national park to pay landowners to allow wild camping

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Dartmoor landowners will be paid for allowing wild camping on their land under a new agreement with the national park.

Last week, the right to wild camp in the park without permission from the landowner was lost after a wealthy landowner took the park authority to court. Dartmoor was the last place in England or Wales where there was a right to wild camp.

Alexander Darwall, a hedge fund manager and Dartmoor’s sixth-largest landowner, brought the case against the national park, arguing that the right had never existed. Darwall, the owner of the 1,619-hectare (4,000-acre) Blachford estate on southern Dartmoor, offers pheasant shoots, deerstalking and holiday rentals on his land.

Now, the national park is understood to have come to an agreement with him and other landowners, who will be paid to offer part of their estates for wild camping. There is to be a map on the national park’s website showing visitors where they have permission to camp.

Kevin Bishop, the chief executive of Dartmoor National Park Authority, confirmed to the Guardian: “There will be a transfer of money between the authority and the landowners, it could be as little as a pound but it could be much more, we don’t know yet. Individual wild campers would not have to pay, you wouldn’t have to take your credit card on a wild camping trip, but you would know from the map that would be on our website that you could camp there and the landowner had granted authority.”

Campaigners have said this agreement is not good enough as it means only a small portion of Dartmoor will be available for wild camping, when until recently they had access to the whole park.

Annie Dare, a wild camping campaigner, said: “This rolling back of our rights to nature has galvanised thousands of people up and down the country to come together to fight to overturn this ruling: to defend and extend and deepen public access to public land.

“We will not be appeased by the deal announced today, under which any landowner may withdraw permission for wild camping at will; under which we understand wild camping will no longer be free; and under which the public would have access to a much smaller area of our beloved Dartmoor.

“We will not stop until wild camping is free and enshrined in law.”

Guy Shrubsole from the Right to Roam campaign referred to the deal as a “stitch-up”, adding: “This is a ransom note from landowners who will be allowed to revoke permission at any time. The public have just had their right to wild camp summarily snatched from them by a wealthy landowner, now we’re expected to be grateful to landowners who grant us permission to wild camp, and pay for the privilege.”

Campaigners are planning a protest on Dartmoor on Saturday to demand the right to camp on the moor is restored.

It is unclear whether the national park still intends to appeal against the court ruling, but it has two more weeks to submit an intention to do so.

A representative for Darwall declined to comment, but confirmed some of his land had been entered into the wild camping scheme.