MORE than 60% of people in Britain support following in Scotland's footsteps across the Border and introducing a right to roam in England, a poll has found.
It comes following a recent High Court ruling that found that wild camping on Dartmoor - the only remaining English bastion where camping was allowed without permission - was unlawful.
A survey of 2029 people conducted by YouGov on behalf of campaign group Right to Roam found cross-party support for the idea, according to The Times.
Of Labour voters, 74% backed the policy in some form. For the Conservatives and the Lib Dems, the figures were 56% and 66% respectively.
Of the total surveyed, only 5% strongly opposed the policy while 62% agreed, providing limitations be put in place to protect private gardens, crop fields and military and conservation sites.
Since the Dartmoor ruling, Labour has committed to extending the right to roam in some form in England.
Environment secretary Therese Coffey has named "access to nature" one of her top five priorities - however that does not explicitly refer to the right to roam.
Right to Roam campaigner Guy Shrubsole told The Times: "Extending access to nature has big benefits for people’s health and is vital if we want more people to care about the ecological crisis.
"“This polling shows that bringing in a Scottish-style right to roam would be hugely popular with the public.
"What’s more, it would be a huge vote-winner.”
Former Labour minister Lord Chris Smith told The Times the 2000 Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act has a "profoundly unequal" impact across the country.
He said: "72 per cent of the Peak District, for example, is included, but only 0.6 per cent of Kent.
"There is virtually no right of access to England’s rivers for kayakers or wild swimmers.”
He added that Scotland has created an ideal blueprint for an act in England, saying: "“The fact that this is legislation that has been tried and tested rather thoroughly over two decades means we have an excellent template on which to build a new Right to Roam Act for England.”
