ABSTRACT
In this chapter we argue that the relationship between the public and the land has been changing, in a paradigmatic sense, since the 1970s. Until then, the relationship was an essentially consumptive one, informed by a rights agenda that invoked the 18th and 19th century enclosures as evidence of landowners assuming powers that were not theirs to assume (Shoard, 1987; Harrison, 1991; Ravenscroft, 1995, 1998). Following 50 years of agitating for greater rights of recreational access to the countryside, many walkers and their representative organizations believed that the time had come for this to change (Ramblers’ Association, 1993). The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 confirmed this belief, with many feeling that the balance had been redressed and that the public had now regained their rights to roam at will over open country (Parker and Ravenscroft, 2001). Yet even in the mid-1990s there was no evidence to suggest that the acquisition of these rights would lead to new consumption (House of Commons Environment Committee, 1995), while by 2005 it had become patently clear that the consumption of day visits to the countryside was declining steadily (Natural England, 2006).
