The need for a greater public relationship with nature has been ’repeatedly stifled and ignored’ in Government, Right To Roam (RTR) campaigners have said.
About 150 RTR campaigners allegedly trespassed on Nature Minister Lord Richard Benyon’s 4,856-hectare Englefield Estate on Sunday, August 7, to encourage him to open it up to the public and extend access for everyone to green space across England.
In a letter to the Conservative peer, shared with The Guardian, they said: "Access to nature is something you, as a major landowner, have taken for granted all your life.
"For the majority of England, however, it is not a luxury but an existential necessity they are denied every day by a system of exclusion, a system you can change."
The group previously met with Lord Benyon to discuss opening up publicly-funded woodlands and the green belt to walkers.
