This morning a peaceful trespass protest on land within and surrounding Richard Drax’s Charborough Estate was met with a huge, disproportionate response from Dorset police including a helicopter, riot van, two marked cars and an unmarked police car with at least six officers in attendance.
Activists from across Dorset including Extinction Rebellion, Weymouth Animal Rights, North Dorset Hunt Saboteurs and Dorset Against Blood Sports took part in a mass trespass on Richard Drax’s Land to mark the 89th Anniversary of the Kinder Scout trespass and highlight the injustice of exclusive land ownership.
Activists chose land belonging to Richard Drax as he is the largest individual landowner in Dorset, owning 13,870 acres of land (equivalent to 7,861 football pitches) along with 125 Dorset properties. Historically, this land was taken from the commons- local people built the longest wall in Britain, which also excluded them from the land behind it. Drax’s ancestral wealth was acquired from his family’s Caribbean plantations where thousands of slaves died.
The action was organised in support of the Right to Roam1 campaign to push for the open spaces of England and Wales to be opened up for public access. ‘No Trespassing’ and ‘Private Property’ signs were replaced with ‘Everybody Welcome’ placards along with a letter2 for the landowner. The letter points out that the public are excluded from 92% of the land in England unlike Scotland and many countries across Europe.
The letter continues ‘To see a registrable effect on our nation’s health, to alleviate the pressure on the NHS, we need to access nature regularly, which means we need it near to our homes’. This past 12 months of lockdown have been a clear indicator that our physical and mental health relies heavily on regular access to the outdoors. The letter continues with ‘Wherever we live, whatever our income, whoever we are, the right to access nature should belong to us all’.
In 2016, the State of Nature Report3 found the UK was one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. But, without a connection to nature, it is no surprise that many people find it hard to comprehend the scale of our climate crisis and habitat loss.
On 24 April 1932, 400 young men and women trespassed on Kinder Scout in Derbyshire, a peaceful protest against the way the general public were denied access to the UK countryside. 89 years later, this local action is also a protest in the wake of recent bill proposals by the government including making intentional trespass a criminal offence, threatening ramblers, campers, and the marginalised travelling community. In 2018, Richard Drax was one of the first MPs to call for the criminalisation of trespass. In recent weeks hundreds of local protestors have taken to the streets of Weymouth and Dorchester to oppose this bill.
A member of XR was personally ushered off the estate by Richard Drax himself, who refused to engage in polite conversation about the right to roam and access to nature, instead calling the peaceful walkers “without a brain”.
Retired Police Inspector and Extinction Rebellion member, Richard Ecclestone said “To deploy a police helicopter and other officers to what was quite obviously a peaceful civil trespass would seem to be an extraordinary use of those hard pressed resources. This protest was designed to start a conversation about this issue, so perhaps a dialogue between the landowner’s agents and the protesters would have been a more proportionate course of action? To have called in the police instead, just demonstrates the arrogance and false sense of entitlement that some privileged landowners have.”
Louise Thompson from Wareham said “today has been a huge reminder of what we’re desperately missing in our lives- that connection with wildlife and the freedom to wander in nature. I’ve enjoyed birdwatching, spotting butterflies and picked up quite a bit of litter along the way”.
Gil Ramirez from Weymouth Animal Rights added “with this amount of land, Richard Drax could be a leader in wildlife protection in the current ecological emergency. Instead he is a firm supporter and landlord of the South Dorset Fox Hunt, holds shooting parties regularly on his estate and allows badgers to be mass-culled across his land. Stewards of the land should have a responsibility to protect, not persecute, the wildlife that lives there”.
An Extinction Rebellion spokesperson from the Dorchester local group commented “this action stands against vandalism in the countryside or disruption of ecosystems and farming. Instead we’re trying to start a conversation with landowners about how the public might have a closer connection to the nature we so badly need and how this could reignite a nationwide care for the protection of our environment As stated previously, we understand for many, the countryside is a place of work and must be respected as such and we hope that with more access and appreciation, as seen in other countries, that respect can grow”.
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