In the House of Commons this Friday Mr. Creech Jones
will introduce, once again, the " Walkers' Charter," a Bill giving the public full access to " uncultivated mountain and moor land." The Bill has been regularly introduced since the days. of Bryce, but Parliament still prefers that mountain and moor should be " preserved " for the pleasures of a few landowners and their friends rather than used for the recreation and well-being of the community as a whole. This sacrifice of the general interest is the more shameful because millions of workers shut up during the week in the smoky industrial cities of the North have at their door miles of magnificent open country that would be a paradise for walkers at the week-end. A correspondent from Lancashire reminds us in emphatic terms how bitterly this exclusion from a country which is properly " theirs " is resented by men and women living on the fringes of the Pennines. He adds " Our men are invaluable in a ' crisis' week, but at a damnable discount at other times. They aren't even worth a brace of arouse ; it is birds before men every time." As he says, the Bill gives not merely free access but " health, fitness, open-air activities, happiness and delight to thousands of decent walkers"- A Government with national- interests at heart should.support the Rill without a moment's hesitation.
Previous page
