George Monbiot (English landowners have stolen our rights. it is time to reclaim them, 19 August) is spot on in his analysis, but doesn’t go far enough. In any modern civilised country, the land, water and air should belong to the nation, not to speculators and the (alleged) descendants of robber barons. One solution might be to make all land leasehold, with an act of parliament to uphold its use and the cost of the lease. Any development that does not meet local scrutiny and reasonable environmental guidelines should be met by the strongest protest – or civil disobedience as this corrupt government will be told to call it by its evil grand vizier.
J Gwynfryn Jones
Windermere, Cumbria
• George Monbiot rightly warns that the government’s proposals “will tilt the law even further towards property”. But even with present legislation, landowners are able to get away with outrageous interventions.
My wife and I have walked much of the Wales Coast Path, but when we reached the beautiful area near Cardigan island 10 days ago we found our way blocked by a high metal fence topped with barbed wire. A website about the Wales Coast Path refers to “870 miles/1400 kilometres of unbroken, unspoilt, coastal walking around the entire Welsh coast”. Alas, it is not so.
Colin Thomas
Bristol
• Please keep reminding us, George Monbiot, about the ever-present land-grabbing of our beautiful country, and how we can reclaim it for our mental and physical health. Could you also remind us to leave no trace?
This summer people took to the hills who didn’t care about the damage they caused in the form of abandoned camping gear, clothes, plastic and barbecues. They possibly didn’t know or care where they were, what ground they were partying on, or what wildlife fled from them as they trashed the landscape.
I return from local walks with bin bags full of rubbish retrieved from the woods, hedgerows and field margins. Littering our lovely open spaces are deer-chewed plastic bags, party balloons caught in thorn bushes, and lager cans among the bee orchids.
Rights to roam should be on the school curriculum, emphasising that rights come with responsibilities. Before we tear down the enclosures, we need to make the history of the English countryside, and its stewardship, a part of our national conversation, so that we know all there is to know about our land and how to care for it.
Frances Cole
Aldbury, Hertfordshire
• George Monbiot’s article would have been more precise and more informative had he made some reference to the right to roam established by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. The right to roam was a longstanding principle espoused by Labour and featured in their 1997 manifesto. Ramblers at least regard this act as a significant achievement. It would have been useful had Monbiot asked questions such as: “What did this act achieve? What remains to be done?”
Margaret Pelling
Oxford
• Oliver Stutchbury made the case for nationalising land in 1974; Labour’s Community Land Act 1975 failed to grasp the nettle, but devised a system of sharing development value. Keir Starmer should revisit this and reclaim our rights stolen by landowners. The proposed changes to planning law in favour of landowners and builders are about much more than rights to roam.
Tommy Gee
Wingfield, Suffolk
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