Hugh Craddock

Wild camping <is> lawful on Dartmoor: Supreme Court has the final word. S.10 of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 does confer a right to wild camp, subject to compliance with byelaws and restrictions. Blog about judgment: Wild about camping pannageman.craddocks.co.uk/2025/05/21/wil…

Corner Drove & Brazen Street today confirmed added to definitive map as restricted byways on historical evidence (including 25 years of LA maintenance) at Ware in east Kent, following apps by BHS in 2019. Intersect here: streetmap.co.uk/map?X=628461&Y… Background: #cornerdrove" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">craddocks.co.uk/apps/index.htm…

@cllrLisaScott @SirGeogy Spend a bit more time in Exeter. It has many alleyways as well as delightful urban-fringe paths. Like many city boroughs, there were originally no definitive map and statement, & so few city paths are recorded, such as supposedly the narrowest in Britain: geograph.org.uk/photo/167378

This is so true. having recently spent time around Exeter, where it is almost entirely devoid of public footpaths.. adults and children alike are left with only the streets. There’s little access to greenspaces other than the canal area. Let’s build a network!

@parachutemind We were delighted when the last Government announced that…

Delighted to hear on the news that the Government is to repeal the #PathExtinguishmentDay provisions!

@SW_Help Perhaps you could pass them a copy and then post their reply here?

@PannageMan Hey Hugh. Unfortunately this would be a question best answered by our train planning team. I would recommend submitting your question via the form on our website under the 'enquiry' header, so that someone can get back to you following an investigation help.southwesternrailway.com/hc/en-gb/reque… ^CW

⚠️ Emergency engineering work takes place between Effingham Junction and Guildford, from Sat 21 to Thurs 26 December. ⚠️ Journey planners will be updated 24 hours in advance. Please check before travelling. We're sorry for the disruption. More info 👇 southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey

@semaphorist I take some comfort from learning that he is 'Not followed by anyone [I'm] following'.

@PannageMan Perhaps if you tweet his name as I just did, the system feeds you tweets that mention it, like Amazon advertising products of a kind you just purchased and no longer need.

I’m increasingly being shown tinfoil-hat conspiracy tweets in the last 2 weeks: folks who believe Bill Gates is interfering with their meat, who believe Christmas is banned, their milk is secretly poisoned, and they are being “replaced” by immigrants. Any idea why?

@Feargal_Sharkey NRW visited only around 200 farms despite obviously-widespread non-compliance, ‘it attended just 29% of the incidents that were reported to it’, and budget and staffing levels are being further cut from already-insufficient levels. I can confidently predict direction of travel.

"63% of inspected Welsh farms non-compliant with new pollution rules." "New pollution rules"? That of course would be the Farming Rules for Water, first mooted in Brussels 1998, enacted in the UK in 2003 as part of the Water Framework Directive and brought into force here in 2018. Farmers now have had 26 years to prepare for this. How many more do they think they should be allowed to do nothing more than comply with the law? endsreport.com/article/189832…

@WlStoke_Lodge @CampaignerKate @bristol247 @bearded It’s a decision to make an order to record four footpaths. There presumably will be objections, and the orders will be referred to the Secretary of State, whose inspector will decide whether to confirm the orders.

The decision to record 4 new public rights of way at Stoke Lodge means that Cotham School simply cannot have the fence that just 1 or 2 individuals have doggedly pursued for so long. Thanks @bristol247 @bearded journo for reporting on yesterday’s decision: bristol247.com/news-and-featu…

It was John Prescott who made the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 happen. Michael Meacher was committed to the new statutory access rights in Part I — but only JP had the political levers to pull in no.10 to overcome its instinctive aversion to taking on the landowners.

@UKSupremeCourt While you’re about making the UKSC ‘more accessible and open’, how about making wifi available for visitors’ (and not just lawyers’) use — without relying on commercial paid-for networks? supremecourt.uk/procedures/pra…

We have revealed more details about our brand new user portal and websites for the UKSC and JCPC, launching later this year. Read more about these improvements on our website: supremecourt.uk/news/stories/2…

@guyshrubsole @AmiesPhilip @Scorhill They’re available now! bailii.org/uk/cases/UKFTT… I understand that HMRC has decided not to pursue any appeal.

@AmiesPhilip @Scorhill Most other Heritage Management Plans for tax-exempt estates are NOT online, and not even available from HMRC - they're only available if you a) request it from the estate b) they choose to give it to you (I've had one refuse to share it)

Good work, @guyshrubsole ‘Additionally, at least seven grouse moor estates gain this extra money in return for giving the public access to moorland that they are legally bound to give.’ Is the claim here that effectively given tax breaks for owning access land?

@Phil_M_Barrett @OrdnanceSurvey A line of pretty-arbitrarily selected tracks along and on/off the North Downs, labelled 'Supposed Pilgrims' Way' (as if even the OS was sceptical), heading to/from Canterbury and the Channel coast. Some of the tracks undoubtedly are ancient: others…

@PannageMan @OrdnanceSurvey Ah, I'm not familiar with it. Does it have some scenic 'diversions' 🤔

I love that in the early days of @OrdnanceSurvey some antiquarian told them, Sure, Blackburn Road, #Ribchester, is a Roman road (Zero evidence) and it's then forever cast in stone when actually #Lidar shows us it's some 130m to the south! #RomanSiteSaturday #Roman #Archaeology

@gilles_laurent_ @SBBTrainDriver Network Rail aussi.

Je viens de faire un magnifique voyage ferroviaire de 10 jours pour relier Genève 🇨🇭 à Athènes 🇬🇷 Je fait le tweet en plusieurs parties parce que ça fait très long sinon [Partie 1 : Genève 🇨🇭 - Ljubljana 🇸🇮]

@NetworkRailWssx @SW_Help How is this ‘upgrading’? Are you offering shorter journey times than historically was achievable? Or some other improvement (other than putting right what has been allowed to deteriorate)?

⌛️Just over two weeks to go until we begin upgrading the line between Brockenhurst and Lymington 🚏🚌Buses will replace trains so please check before you travel @SW_Help passengers 📲To find out more about our work, please visit networkrail.co.uk/running-the-ra…

@paulpowlesland Not just picnicking. What about rock climbing or wild swimming? Or plain sitting down? And wheelchair or tramper users — they’re not on foot, are they? Are they to lose their access to Dartmoor?

However much Darwall is paying his legal team, it’s too much if they’re taking duff points like this. Arguing that, under their interpretation of the law, having a picnic on common or access land falls outside the right of recreation is just bizarre. It would make basic activities enjoyed by swathes of ordinary people in the countryside into unlawful trespass. It also hints what this case is really about: a minority of wealthy landowners trying to roll back access rights & stop the majority of the population enjoying & connecting to the land & the natural world.

@LindaHurrell @Right_2Roam @openspacessoc No: it’s common land subject to commoners’ grazing rights, so the owner can do virtually nothing with the land. Which is why the power to prohibit camping is grandstanding.

@Right_2Roam @PannageMan @openspacessoc But the owner can do whatever he likes with the land? No responsibility in law?????

@Chris5NA Could be anything up to a year. But probably less.

Today's #wildcamping case starts in the @UKSupremeCourt, court 2. A short point of statutory interpretation. Lord Reed says court has not found assistance in submissions suggesting interpretation can rely on proceedings in Parliament on Dartmoor Commons Bill in 1984–85.