In reply to steveriley:
At the moment, DNP are taking legal advice on the likelihood of an appeal being successful and will be deciding whether to appeal or not at tomorrow's meeting. If they decide to appeal, it will cost a lot (£100k?) so we'll probably have to do some fundraising to supprt them. If an appeal goes ahead, it would almost certainly be at least a year before the process was completed so the best we can have in the interim is the permissive agreement that DNP has negotiated with the landowners.
If DNP decide not to appeal, or the appeal is unsuccessful, then we need to campaign for a change in the law. The good news is that the court case has put access issues onto the political agenda and at a national level, The Ramblers, supported by the BMC, are campaigning for improved access to the countryside. There is a good chance that this may well be in the Labour and Lib Dem's manifestos for the next general election.