Dave Bangs News Today

More than 1,000 people have signed a petition calling for a site picked out by Center Parcs for a holiday village to be protected.

An impassioned plea has gone out from a conservationist in a bid to stop a new £350m Center Parcs holiday complex being built in Sussex.

Naturalist and campaigner Dave Bangs says limiting access to the countryside makes it harder to save our ancient landscapes

Over 300 people took part in the mass trespass. Credit: Curtis James According to Landscapes of Freedom, there is only a right to roam on 8% of England under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CROW, 2000). Trespasser Nick Hayes, co-founder of the Right to Roam campaign, said the statistic is a “national scandal”. “We all need greater access to nature on a regular basis, for our physical and mental health – our sedentary lifestyles cost society around £8 billion every year,”...

A mass trespass is due to take place on the Brighton Downs on Saturday, July 24 “Our woods, our farm fields, our streams and waterlands, and many of our lanes and tracks are forbidden to us,” he said. “And on our local downs landowners continue to exclude the public even on some sites where we now have a statutory right of access. “The land should be our common delight because our common ancestors shaped and formed it, and we collectively make and consume its products. It is our c...