Nicholas Crane: Feet are the future

BBC Coast presenter Nicholas Crane is excited by Britain’s new low-carbon economy, where walking is prized more than ever before. But, he argues, there’s still plenty to do…

These are exciting times. A futuristic, low-carbon landscape is taking shape in the shires. Farmers encourage biodiversity and sell to local markets, bike wheels sparkle on disused railways and cars are replaced by boots. And about time, too. A planet of billions of humans hurtling about in cars and planes was no more a model for the future than unregulated financial systems. Hypermobility was a 20th century aberration. Walking is fun, healthy and free. Homo sapiens has been a walker for the best part of 140,000 years; for the last 100 of those years we just became addicted to speed and displacement. The rediscovery of our own powers of locomotion is the first step in adapting to a world in which money, space and temperate climates are valued not squandered.

So times really have changed. But it’s no happy accident. For decades, farsighted advocates of walking, such as the Ramblers, have been working behind the scenes to make our British landscapes more accessible. It’s been a long hike. Earlier this year, the final patch of land was added to the access maps created under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. Ordnance Survey maps bearing the access symbol now show the areas of mountain, moorland, downland, heath and registered common land that have been opened up on a ‘right to roam’ basis. In the pipeline is the Marine and Coastal Access Bill, which proposes a public right of access to the coastline of England and Wales. A continuous coastal path from Berwick upon Tweed to the Solway would provide future generations with a new view of our island, a spectacular walkway threaded between the two habitats critical to our future: sea and land.

Inland, the first steps have been taken to rationalise the intricate web of paths and byways that crisscross the countryside. Rights of Way Improvement Plans may not sound too exciting, but they have the potential to change the way we get to school and the shops; to reinvent our lunch-hours and weekends; to open the door for domestic tourism. Ever since local paths and tracks were inconsistently marked on definitive maps, rights of way have been an idiosyncratic network whose preservation has required continual vigilance. Many of the footpaths, bridleways and byways were historical relics, leading to places that had long faded from the landscape. Others had been blocked by landowners.

Now, every highway authority has been obliged to identify potential new rights of way that would create a more logical network. For the first time, rights of way are being developed systematically. There are of course multiple snags, from planning wrangles to money, but this has to be an era of problem-solving, of progress. Political support is crucial. An effective rights-of-way network is the arterial basis of low-carbon travel. Access is just one part of the story; a walk is measured by the quality of the land it passes through. After centuries of being abused as an inexhaustible resource, the countryside is being rejuvenated. From farmer’s field to national park, there is a new consensus that a healthy, accessible countryside is fundamental to a low carbon economy.

A few years ago, I walked the length of England, from Northumberland to Dorset. It was a short walk (for me!) of just a couple of months, but it was long enough to realise that our rights of way all too often stand as a barrier between the public and an understanding of the countryside, in particular the needs of the agricultural community. But segregation is a short-cut to ignorance. If you tramp north of the border, where the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gives everyone statutory access rights to most land and inland water, you don’t find landscapes being trashed by pedestrians. In fact, as a lifelong hiker, I’d argue that wider access to the countryside has led to a greater understanding of countryside issues. To care for a habitat, it must be shared, so the best way to educate people about its needs and cares is to let them explore for themselves. And exploring means leaving the straight and narrow; roaming around and learning. It’s time to take to the outdoors and follow Wordsworth’s disappearing line “to things unknown and without bound”.

Nick Crane is author of Great British Journeys, £8.99, published by Phoenix