Having been part of the initial pre public consultation I'm very cynical of DNPA's intentions. At face value the proposals would appear quite reasonable but earlier in the summer, when I first talked to Alison kholer, she tried to persuade me to support a plan to remove over 40% of the wild camping permission (the initial proposal was to remove all permission within 1km of a vehicular highway). It became obvious that this idea was land owner lead move rather than serving the interests of those who currently have the legal right to wild camp on areas of dartmoor. Alison's comment here fails to address the point that written into the current proposal is a clause that gives the DNPA free reign to remove whatever permission they wish without full legal scrutiny. I would warn those who are inclined to trust the statement that the park authorities prefered end game is to permanently remove a large portion of the current permission. The current proposal will allow them to achieve that without further opposition. The park authority is using the actions of a few antisocial roadside fly-campers to lend gravity to their attempt to take back permission from people who's are not to blame for the problem. It's dirty politics and needs to be strongly opposed.
I for one will not support giving away our legal right to wildcamp and advise others to consider which side of this line they wish to stand. Are we to give away our rights, or each do what we can to stop this proposal from passing into law?
