A couple from Wiltshire who make YouTube videos of them exploring Britain have been shedding light on the problems with open access areas of land.
Paul and Rebecca Whitewick recently made a video of themselves explaining the issues with “inaccessible islands” - land which the public legally have access to but can’t visit because they would have to trespass on other parts of private land to get there.
They worked out that Wiltshire has almost 5 million square metres of these inaccessible pockets.
Rebecca said in the video they posted on Youtube: “Effectively, we found this little bit of land, a little island that effectively no one can go and visit.
Paul added: “Indeed, an open access bit of land which you can walk on but you cannot get to.”
“You’d think it would be quite rare, but I don’t think that’s the case as if we do the maths there’s quite a few of these islands in Wiltshire.”
They then decided to take it to the next level, and actually visit one of the islands.
The pair set out with a photographer to see what they could find, and took the decision to go down a route they were not supposed to, to reach the open access section of land.
They walked part of the route on the Wansdyke, but did not reveal the name of the places they trespassed or the island itself.
Paul said in the video: “What we’ve done is take the closest point to a pathway and we’re actually on a bit of land which looks like a road or a purpose-built kind of road and we’ve also passed no signs, no fences, nothing at all that I’ve seen as we’ve approached the bit of land where we are allowed, but not allowed to get there by what we’re doing right now.”
The group reached a point in the woods where some of them were technically trespassing, but others were not as they found their “island.”
The group arrives at the open access land area
When arriving, Paul said: “Why is this island a thing? It shouldn’t be a thing, and there should be some kind of permissive pathway here.”
According to the UK Government, the right to access this land is called the “right to roam”, or “freedom to roam”.
There are different rules for what you can and cannot do on different parts of land.
To find out more, visit https://www.gov.uk/right-of-way-open-access-land/use-your-right-to-roam
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