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Welcoming the unanimous supreme court judgment, that there is a legal right to backpack camp on Dartmoor’s commons, we have called on the government to ensure that this, and other, access rights are extended nationwide.
In a statement released as the court’s decision was announced today, the society’s general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, declared: ‘If Darwall v Dartmoor[1] is to be a truly landmark decision, the government must act to ensure a right to sleep under the stars applies to all national parks and wild country.’
Photo: Andrew Bowden from London, United Kingdon, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The case summarised
We intervened in the supreme court to support the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) which was defending an appeal from Alexander and Diana Darwall, the owners of Stall Moor common on south-west Dartmoor.
The Darwalls challenged the DNPA’s contention that there was a right to backpack camp (or ‘wild camp’) under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 (the 1985 act), and they won in the high court in January 2023. The DNPA appealed, with the OSS intervening in support, and the court of appeal ruled on 31 July 2023 that there was a right to camp on the commons. The Darwalls in turn appealed and the case was heard in the supreme court on 8 October 2024, before Lord Reed, Lord Sales, Lord Stephens, Lady Rose, and Lady Simler.
After hearing the arguments, from Timothy Morshead KC for the Darwalls, and Richard Honey KC for the DNPA, and reading the submissions from Ned Westway for the OSS, the judges decided in favour of the DNPA and OSS.
The judgment was given by Lord Sales and Lord Stephens, with whom the other three judges agreed.
Counsel for the Darwalls argued that the words of section 10 of the 1985 act, that ‘the public shall have a right of access to the commons on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation’, did not include a right to camp, and that ‘open-air recreation’ was restricted to things which could be done while on foot or in the saddle (such as bird-watching).
However, the judges considered that ‘In our view, as a matter of ordinary language, camping is a form of “open-air recreation”. Therefore, the provision confers a right for members of the public to have a right of access to the Commons, provided that it is exercised by going onto the Commons on foot or on horseback, for the purpose of camping there.’
They noted that if the Darwalls were correct, one would have no right to stop to have a picnic, commenting ‘In our view … it would be absurd to construe section 10(1) as not including a right to carry on such an activity’. Provided people entered the commons on foot or on horseback, they then had the right to engage in many forms of open-air recreation, subject only to the restrictions applied under the 1985 act and the national park byelaws.
What next?
Said Kate: ‘This is a tremendous outcome, confirming what we have believed all along, namely that there has always been a right for the public to camp on nearly all the 359 square kilometres of Dartmoor commons.
We were therefore delighted to intervene in support of the DNPA and are deeply grateful to our counsel from Francis Taylor Building Chambers who acted pro bono, and to our solicitors Richard Buxton.
‘We trawled through the legislation from the nineteenth century relating to common land and access, which showed that much of it expressly excluded camping from the right of access. It followed that camping must fall within the broad definition of open-air recreation; there would otherwise have been no reason expressly to exclude it. The judges agreed.’
Kate continued: ‘Dartmoor remains one of only a handful of places in England where there is a right to backpack camping without the landowner’s permission. We want to see that right extended, so that people can enjoy a night under the stars on all open country in England and Wales. We shall campaign with other organisations to achieve this. The government is dragging its feet on the issue of improved public access.
‘The supreme court’s decision is generously and robustly argued. We must now stimulate ministers to legislate in the same spirit across our countryside.’
[1] Darwall and another (appellants) v Dartmoor National Park Authority (Respondent).f Judgment available via www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2023-0126