On 11 February, a judicial review will take place at London’s Royal Courts of Justice during which Britain’s walking charity, the Ramblers, will argue that a network of paths in Hayton Woods, Cumbria, should be protected for public use.  

The landowners at the centre of this case, Roxlena Limited, want to stop paths that run through the picturesque woodland being recognised as public rights of way, even though they have been in use for decades.   

Jack Cornish at the Ramblers explains, “If there is evidence that a path has been used by the public for 20 years without interruption, the law sees this path as a right of way that the public should be able to walk on and enjoy. During our 90-year history, the Ramblers has always fought to protect the public’s right to walk in nature and it’s no different today. The law must be correctly applied, and these paths added to the definitive map so they have proper legal protection.  

“The paths in question form part of the community's local heritage, leading to Abraham’s cave and other rock formations, and stone mined from this area was used to build Hadrian’s Wall.”  

“There is a lot at stake in this particular case, because a result in favour of Roxlena would set a bleak precedent. Roxlena’s central argument is that these paths have not been used without interruption for 20 years because there was a relatively short gap during the foot-and-mouth outbreak in the early 2000s. People were asked not to walk in the countryside to help prevent the spread of the disease and that’s now being used against them. A win for the company could put other paths that were off limits in similar circumstances – such as during the Covid-19 lockdowns – in jeopardy.” 

“Legal cases like this can be time consuming and costly but it’s important to make sure the law is correctly applied, that paths are properly protected and prevent the tragedy of the foot-and-mouth crisis being exploited by this company.” 

While Roxlena Limited attempted to stop this judicial review from taking place, Mrs Justice Lang decided that the Ramblers has an arguable case and that the matter should proceed to a full hearing.