A new study has found that the River Dart, in Devon, has 108 separate owners, with some owned by offshore companies.
The story in The Guardian said campaigners in Devon used angling maps, Companies House records and Land Registry data to find out who owns the river.
It follows the government’s manifesto promise to create nine new river walks in England.
Paddle UK has called for the Government to ensure these ‘River Trails’ routes are multi-user, rather than just for walkers.
Fewer than 4% of English rivers are open to the public, and the study shows how complex land ownership is.
The River Dart is 47 miles (75 km) long, and has nearly 100 miles (160 km) of bank in total. The Duchy of Cornwall owns 28 miles (45km) of riverbank.
The Spitchwick estate owns 12 miles, and the Duke of Somerset has about 1.25 miles. The research also found that 11.6 miles is owned via offshore companies.
‘Complete mystery’
Government policy toward access on inland waters has long been that it should be negotiated locally, via local access agreements.
In our recent submission to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Outdoor Recreation & Access to Nature, Paddle UK highlighted just how complicated, time consuming and restrictive this policy is.
Paddle UK’s Head of Access & Environment, Ben Seal said:
“This new research on the River Dart begins to shine a light into what can sometimes feel a complete mystery – who actually owns our rivers and river banks?
“The complexity of compiling this research and the nature of its findings shows just how out of touch the Government policy is when it comes to securing recreational access to inland waters.
“The prospect of someone negotiating with hundreds of landowners – some of whom live offshore – is just not conducive to securing a clear, consistent and understandable right for the public to enjoy.
“Scale this up across thousands of kilometres of inland waters in England and Wales and you can see why the present policy has made no progress in tackling the key barrier that prevents people enjoying more of our blue spaces”.
“Paddle UK, along with other water users, will continue to advocate for new legislation to create a clear right to enjoy our inland waters, backed up by Code of Conduct for all users, like our Paddlers’ Code.”
Lewis Winks, who compiled the River Dart research, told The Guardian:
“The River Dart is rightly a much-celebrated part of the Devon landscape, yet the rights to the river – and those who own them – largely remain a mystery.
“The more time I spend with the Dart, the more urgent the question becomes: who gets to decide whether we are able to know and love this river?”
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told The Guardian that the Government are “progressing plans to designate nine new national river walks, one in each region of England”.