Breaky Bottom Protest, Sussex - 12 June 2010

ACTION FOR ACCESS: Walking and working for a people's countryside.
WE BROKE OPEN BREAKY BOTTOM !!

Press release, 12th June 2010.
Contact Dave: T. 01273 620 815, dave.bangs@virgin.net or Kim: T. 0771 716 0530, kim.icity@googlemail.com
 
Today a bunch of walkers from as far away as Dorset and the Chilterns walked the forbidden Access Land site of Breaky Bottom farm and vineyard, near Rodmell, to say: "A big raspberry to the selfish landowner who wishes to remove a right of access that has taken 130 years[i] to secure".

They had with them Kate Ashbrook, Gen. Sec. of the Open Spaces Society and doughty fighter against Nicholas Hoogstraten's footpath stopping antics, and Marion Shoard[ii], the author whose books highlighting the destruction of the countryside and the inequities of landownership have turned around the politics of the countryside in the last generation.

Sixty walkers and their children, with folk from the Ramblers Association, Red Rope[iii], and The Land Is Ours[iv], watched as we symbolically fenced the steep slope of a tiny chalk pit which the landowner has been using as his excuse for excluding the public from this statutory Access Land site. We decorated the new fence with our ribbons, banners and placards.

Despite owning "the most fenced farm on the entire South Downs", with every tiny paddock and vine row fenced or hedged, this landowner so far refuses to fence this chalk pit because its presence as a safety hazard constitutes the excuse he needs to secure a Restriction Order forbidding us access to this ancient flowery pasture.

Kate Ashbrook in her speech said: "It is outrageous that we are banned from this lovely site. The Access Land on the Downs is pitifully sparse in any case. Breaky Bottom is the entry point to a delightful but very under-used part of the Downs, and is only a short distance from the South Downs Way. All the landowner needed to do was to put about 70 metres of fencing[v] around the quarry to comply with the requirements for making Access Land safe for the public".

Marion Shoard called for "a right of respectful access everywhere in the countryside, as already exists in Scotland[vi]."

Dave Bangs, of Action For Access, said. "The landowner wants his right to privacy, even though he already lives in one of the remotest and most under-visited parts of the South Downs. Yet what about the rights to enjoy the countryside and nature which all those millions of us cooped up in our cities, towns and villages need for our health and recreation ? Wealth and land ownership should not be what determines our right to enjoy the countryside."

Our campaign is determined to return and return again to Breaky Bottom until we see Lewes District Council and Natural England secure the permanent fencing of this little chalk pit and the consequent re-opening of this site to public access.

 
[i] The campaign for the right to roam has been going since the 1880's and the first Parliamentary Bill was put forward by James Bryce in 1884. In 2000 the CROW Act (Countryside and Rights of Way Act) was passed, which gave walkers a limited right of access over "mountain, moor, heath, down and common". In practice the amount of Access Land on the South Downs increased by only 2 %. Breaky Bottom was one of the 'precious fragments' of old Downland which was given this statutory right of access.
 
[ii] Marion Shoard published the famous book "The Theft of the Countryside" in 1980, to be followed by "This Land Is Our Land" in 1987, and "A Right To Roam" in 1999. Her website has contact details.
 
[iii] Red Rope is a socialist walkers and climbers group which has long fought for responsible public access to the countryside, has always worked for equal opportunities in access, and has led countless group walks and holidays into remote and lovely places.
 
[iv] The Land Is Ours was founded twenty years ago by George Monbiot, and has led strong campaigns for land rights on both urban and rural issues. They publish a magazine called 'The Land'. The Land Is Ours in Sussex organised the series of mass trespasses in 1998-9 which was at the heart of the national campaign for the CROW Act.
 
[v] The landowner, Peter Hall, has recently spent £15,000 on hundreds of yards of new barbed wire fencing on this Access Land, splitting this slope up into four separate paddocks.
 
[vi] The newly devolved government of Scotland passed a new access law which gave people the freedom to walk at will anywhere in the countryside they wished, provide they did no damage and did not enter private domestic or business space. It has worked well. This legal and customary right has always been held by the people of Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, and is known as "allemansratt" (every man's right).RESS

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• Breaky Bottom Protest
• Sussex - 12 June 2010

[madbadnob]

I have worked for the owner of breaky bottom his a very nice guy and nobody wants thesse lefty wishy washy jobless bored poorly educated numptys walking over there front lawn! Theres 1000s of miles of foot paths and bridleways across the south downs but for thesse people it just not enough!

[28902895]

People with nothing better to do in their shit life...

[peterecoil]

boring man

[dickrees]

what a bunch of losers... sad sandle wearing chumps. why shouldnt he have his privacy. bunch of chippy sods - (he got that right) masquerading as righteous indignation! get a life.

[SkyBluePig8]

Have a read of the recent background information before you pass judgement!

[bibes120656]

I went for a lovely walk past Breaky Bottom last year. No problem with access. No problem with walking right past the vinneard and buildings. Access by this vineyard is no problem. David Bangs is just one of those silly leftie "right on" pratts.

The "Landowner" he talks about, is in fact only a tenant farmer. He does not own the land..

Think I'll set up a tent in Bangsy's garden. I'm sure he won't object!