The Great Outdoors – July 2019

Going wild – at a price?

Roger Smith looks at a curious proposal to monetise ‘wild’ camping in England’s National Parks

where wild camping for one or two nights

is permitted provided it is done responsibly.

At present, strictly speaking, you need the

landowners’ permission before camping

in England and Wales, though as we all

know hundreds of people camp wild every

weekend with no problems at all.

More information gradually emerged.

The £20 fee (which might be £30 in some

cases) was per tent not per person, and

would be split 50% to the landowner,

25% to the national park and 25% for

administration. The hugely ambitious aim

was to locate 500 wild pitch sites across all

of the National Parks. This would surely

have required enormous amounts of

administration which UK Wildcamp didn’t

seem to have.

Tweets and emails flew back and

forth and then on Monday 3 June, UK

Wildcamp pulled the plug, stating: “We

are wild campers too and thought the idea

of campaigning to remove the current

restrictions would be welcome. We also

thought that running a booking scheme

for entry-level wild campers would be

understood and welcomed by the wider

group.

“We see now this is not the case. We are

going to suspend our service and have a

rethink about how we might revise it. We

won’t describe any future version of our

service as ‘wild camping’ because for many

of you that specifically means free and

WELL, THIS IS AN ODD ONE. At the
end of May we learned of the launch of a
scheme apparently aimed at encouraging
inexperienced backpackers to enjoy wild
camping in two of our national parks.
Seems fair enough? Not when you read
that it would cost you £20 a night and all
you would get for your money apparently
was a grid reference and the blessing of the
landowners as they pocketed your cash.
The Twittersphere exploded with
comments posted by outraged luminaries
from the backpacking and hillwalking
community. One senior member of the
Backpackers Club said: “I recently paid
£10 for a pitch including showers, toilets,
electric kettle and a lounge. Pay £20 for a
wild pitch – not likely.” There was much
more in the same vein, including an article
in The Guardian by Phoebe Smith in which
she said: “The benefits from wild camping
are priceless and everyone should be able to
experience [them] without being charged for
the privilege.”
The scheme was being proposed by
Will Harris, author of a slim book called
Rewilding the Humans in which he argues
the case for us all to get out and experience
nature close-up. We’d all agree with that aim,
but not the way Will was suggesting it was
done.
He had approached two National Parks,
the Lake District and the South Downs,
and asked if they could identify suitable
sites which could be used. There is some
confusion as to his relationship with the
Parks. Richard Leafe, chief executive of
the Lake District National Park Authority,
said that they were: “collaborating with UK
Wildcamp to trial a wild camping experience
on a limited number of sites” but the South
Downs NPA said: “This is a private pilot
project completely separate to the South
Downs National Park Authority. Five sites
along the South Downs Way were identified
where the landowner might allow a small
number of camping pitches.”
Many questions remained unanswered.
How would the sites be promoted? How
many tents would be allowed on each site?
What advice would be given about toileting
and general campcraft? Why was the fee
necessary?
Underlying the proposal, apparently, was
a desire to try to bring the English and Welsh
legislation in line with that in Scotland,

unplanned camping. Nor are we likely to

stray into a debate about the laws on wild

camping as we now understand that this is a

highly charged area.”

The last two sentences get to the nub of

the matter. Not enough thought was given to

this scheme before it was launched, and its

proposers failed to consult key organisations

and individuals who could have given

them invaluable advice (like ‘don’t do it’).

We are also left with the question as to why

the government agency DEFRA agreed to

provide seed funding for this proposal when

so many exceptional countryside schemes

find it impossible to get financial support.

The National Parks seem to have bene

hoodwinked to some extent, as is evident

from some rapid backtracking when the row

blew up.

What happens now? Making wild

camping legitimate in England and Wales

is a highly laudable aim but there are better

ways of going about it. I am sure all the

relevant bodies such as the Backpackers

Club, Ramblers, BMC etc would be happy to

sit down with Will Harris and his colleagues,

discuss the whole question and agree a

common approach, perhaps tying in with

the current review of National Parks. Will

ruffled some feathers with his £20-a-night

plans but I don’t believe he has done long-

term damage, and something for the greater

good might yet emerge. It was a rum do

while it lasted, though.

Photo: James Osmond

by Roger Smith

COMMENT

Wild camping in

the Lake District

28 The Great Outdoors July 2019