Yesterday I wrote about an Early Day Motion (EDM 1068) that my MP, Caroline Lucas published back on the 14th March. It is a document set out with the text below. Today is the 90th Anniversary of the Kinder Scout event which has led to 10 National Parks in our Nation. In effect there has been one established every 10 years and one additional one over the 90 years. However we need the Nation to be more flexible and so this EDM is important. There is more information about the EDM and indeed the background in the blog yesterday called “Parliament please Access the Outdoors Commission”. It is worth checking to see if your MP has responded. So far there are 27 MPs including Caroline Lucas that have signed it and tragically no Conservative MPs have bothered to do so. I did send a message to Peter Kyle who is the only MP in Brighton and Hove who has not signed it and he explained that the Shadow Cabinet Members cannot sign EDM’s and so it is also the case for Government Ministers. However there are a lot of MPs who are not Cabinet MPs so there is a value in calling for many other MPs to sign it. Here is the text.

“That this House notes that 24 April marks the 90th anniversary of the mass trespass onto Kinder Scout; acknowledges that this trespass united the campaign for access to the countryside and eventually contributed to the establishment of the UK’s first national parks through the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949; recognises the growing body of evidence demonstrating the importance of access to nature for health and wellbeing which has been highlighted by the covid-19 pandemic when use of parks and public green spaces increased; is concerned that people from ethnic minorities or with low incomes are less likely to live near green space and 2.7 million people in the UK have no publicly accessible green space within easy walking distance from their home; notes that the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 only provides access to 8% per cent of English land, and that the public can only access 3 per cent of rivers in England and Wales; acknowledges that legislation in Scotland and European countries including Norway provides for a much greater right to roam; believes that extending the right to roam to cover more landscapes and recreational activities would improve the public’s connection to nature whilst also delivering on the Government’s commitment in the 25 Year Environment Plan to open up the mental and physical health benefits of the natural world; and calls on the Government to bring forward legislation to extend the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 to include rivers, woods and Green Belt land.”

The MPs that have signed it are in the following regional groups:

North West – 6 MPs (All of them are Labour)

London – 4 MPs

Wales – 3 MPs (All of them are Plaid Cymru)

Yorkshire and the Humber – 3 MPs (All of them are Labour)

Scotland – 2 MPs (both are SNP)

South East – 2 MPs (both in Brighton!)

East of England – 2 MPs (both Labour)

South West – 1 MP (Bath, Lib Dem, Wera Hobhouse)

West Midlands – 1 MP (Coventry South, Labour, Zarah Sultana)

East Midlands – 1 (Leicester East, Independent, Claudia Webbe)

North East – 1 (Jarrow, Labour, Kate Osborne)

Northern Ireland – 1 (East Antrim, DUP, Sammy Wilson)

So now we need to find a way to persuade the other MPs to respond