25 July 2024

Gavin Corbett, Ramblers Scotland’s Policy and Advocacy Manager, explains why we’re calling for targeted changes to Scotland's latest Land Reform Bill, to improve and safeguard walkers’ access to the green spaces on our doorsteps.  

Scotland’s world-class access legislation opened the way for people to responsibly roam across nearly all of Scotland’s countryside.   

Two decades on, when people visualise the impact of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, it's easy to imagine the grandest mountain, loch and island landscapes for which Scotland is rightly famed across the globe.  

But in fact, for many in Scotland, the impact of the 2003 Act has been more striking on the outdoor spaces closer to where we live. That could be our nearby woods, beaches, riverbanks or parks. Those local spots that we all cherish and explore every week.  

Booming numbers of people are walking in Scotland, yet the nation is grappling with shocking health inequalities and many communities still face additional barriers to walking.  

So, if we are serious about expanding the benefits of recreational walking to more people, especially those living in less well-off areas, then it's local spaces - just as much as our magnificent uplands - which need to feel welcoming and attractive. That's where Scotland's latest Land Reform Bill comes in.  

 

An opportunity for progress  

The Bill is currently in its early stages of going through the Scottish Parliament, and it will be well into 2025 before it completes its passage. Much of it concerns community transfer of land and reforms to tenant farmer laws.   

But one important section sets out a new duty on land managers to produce land management plans over a five-year cycle. Importantly, these plans must show how the land manager upholds public rights of responsible access to land.  

So far, so good - but there's a catch.   

As the Bill stands, the new duty only applies to landholdings bigger than 3,000 hectares. That's the equivalent of 6,000 football pitches! Big, in other words.  

And while these giant estates make up about 40% of Scotland's land, it's only about 400 landowners, and very much focused on the larger upland estates in the northern half of Scotland.  

 

Creating better legislation  

Ramblers Scotland believes that the new requirement for land management plans is a good idea.   

At their best, they will put the onus on land managers to be pro-active in how they support and promote public access and so complement rights of responsible access.    

In fact, we think they are such a good idea, that we think there should be more of them. That is why our Scottish Council AGM backed a motion calling for the threshold to be lowered from 3,000 hectares to 500 hectares.   

That call forms the core of our evidence to the Bill, along with a power for Scottish Ministers to vary the threshold, with Parliament’s consent, without having to change the law each time.  

 

The evidence  

Mapping by land expert Andy Wightman shows the dramatic difference that lowering the threshold makes.   

Not only is more land included, but it is much more widely distributed across Scotland and much closer to major centres of population.   

That means that many more people, from all backgrounds, will see the benefits of land management plans when walking close to home.  

There is a balance to be struck of course.  An estate of 20,000 hectares will usually have more capacity to develop a land management plan than a family farm of 600 hectares. There is also a danger of clutter from a plethora of plans. We recommend that plans that have to be prepared anyway - for farming or forest activity, for example - are used instead of having to prepare a separate plan.   

We also want these plans to be stored and easily-accessible in a single place, so that the public can engage with better land access issues in Scotland.   

Reforming the way Scotland manages land for the most public benefit will always be a work in progress. We believe that with just some modest changes, Scotland's latest Land Reform Bill can further improve access for *everyone* to walk.