RAMBLERS have marked the launch in North Yorkshire of a groundbreaking campaign which sparked the biggest change in access to the countryside in modern history, and vowed the battle goes on.

The right to roam was enshrined in the Countryside and Rights of Way act 2000. The basis of that act was worked out by senior leaders of the Ramblers at a special summit at the tiny village of Stalling Busk, near Bainbridge in the Yorkshire Dales in 1996.

They hammered out the basics of the draft Access Bill which led to the Act giving the public freedom to walk over mapped mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land. In the past, the public could walk only on established public footpaths and bridleways, on common land and on the foreshore, and land owners could prevent access to other areas, or charge people to walk on it.

Now a plaque has been unveiled at the site of the historic summit by Ramblers vice president Janet Street-Porter as senior leaders gathered and pledged to fight for even greater access. The plaque which marks the right to roam was placed on the cottage of Jerry Pearlman who lives at Stalling Busk. Mr Pearlman is the former Honorary solicitor of the Ramblers and drafted the prototype access bill.

Janet Street-Porter said: “There are three basic freedoms: the freedom to vote, the freedom to be equal, and the freedom to walk in as many places as possible. The 1996 meeting was a vital step in the Ramblers’ campaign towards the third of those freedoms.”

Ramblers’ vice-chair, Kate Ashbrook, who chaired the original meeting, added: “The Countryside and Rights of Way Act was a major milestone in the campaign for greater freedom to roam, but the Ramblers’ job is not done. Whatever one thinks about Brexit, it is an opportunity to ensure that public subsidies for farmers and landowners include significant spending on public access to the lovely countryside of Yorkshire and beyond.”

Former Nottinghamshire MP Paddy Tipping, who led the successful access campaign in Parliament said: “The next campaign must be to secure greater rights for ordinary people to enjoy the land, this land is our land.”