I think that's a very valid point though; the UK is four different countries (plus a lot of islands, some of which have their own laws too) and while it seems sensible to have 'joined up thinking' on environmental features like rivers, the reality often gets bogged down in the minutae of trying to please everyone....I don't think that has ever happened yet
I would love free and easy access for us all, but we live in a busy island, it's big enough that we can still find quiet places to wander, but honestly, it doesn't need many to be careless, as in couldn't care less, to make things a mess of damage, depredation, destruction, pollution, etc.,
I don't know the answer.
I do know that virtually every hilltop in our isles has a fort of some kind on it. There are walls and dykes and ditches and trenches all over. We've been defining and defending territory for millenia
The river banks are where folks first settled, good easy worked land, fertile and seasonal inundation brought down stuff from higher up to enrich the soil. Good foraging, good hunting or fishing, all year long.
River access was the only way to get inland in Britain for an awfullly long time. Decent roads and all year clear footpaths are a relatively new thing. Crossing points, fords, confluences, those became settlements, often walled settlements, York for instance.
If you look at a map of the UK, it's usually displayed North to South. If you turn it on it's side, suddenly the network of rivers that thread through the entire land is shown so clearly....all of those rivers were access and transport routes.....and food.
Now that access is restricted, limited, but it's because the rivers are used by so many different people, businesses, industries, all with different needs.....and still we don't take enough care, we use them as overflow sewers, etc.,
Honestly ? I think until we get 'joined up thinking' on it, then it's always going to be contentious.
M
www.gov.scot
