Executive Summary - The new Labour government wants to encourage access to ‘the outdoors’, but this policy aim can be cast in quite stereotypical or negative terms. - Labour has innovated on this front before, in legislation passed in 1949, 1968 and 2000, and the future course of policy should at least be guided by past experience. - Delivering change ‘on the ground’ will be harder than declaring it legally or trying to make it work administratively: it could take many years for Labour to make a quantitative difference. - Narrative and ‘story-telling’ will be very important in forging a new idea of access, especially if the aim is to attract previously excluded groups. - The Government should focus on local and regional access, rather than abstract and unrealistic notions of long-distance ‘walking’. - More accessible rights of way will be needed of all types, so that all citizens can feel included in the system, and new technology can be harnessed to assist in giving a sense of what access is really like in each part of the country. - Voluntary, charitable and civic groups should become key partners in the making and upkeep of paths and tracks of all sorts.
O'Hara, Glen
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Year of publication: 2024Date of RADAR deposit: 2024-12-03