Please use the countryside responsibly- so fed up

[jacks11]

On a rare day off from my day job, I have once again spent the day dealing with a series of thoughtless and/or completely entitled idiots behaving totally irresponsibly on our land. I had thought the one (very small) silver lining of this awful situation would be that this lambing season would see us free from so many problems from people out for a walk etc. But still having issues.

Today I stopped no fewer than 7 families traipsing through either the yard, our garden (one family stopping to have a seat on the picnic table/bench in our garden) or the lambing sheds to have a look. One family also stopped off to admire the lambs in one of the fields then preceded to take there youngish children (under 10) into said fields to see them closer. Several gates left open, people climbing over gates etc. I caught someone feeding our old pony apples and a doughnut! We’ve had rubbish being dropped. Dogs off leads etc.

What I cannot understand is how so many are getting to us- they must be breaching the guidance to only exercise locally or walking at least 7 miles from the nearest village. Which I doubt with the ages of some of the children.

When DH politely approached the family in our garden they were really rude, citing their “right to roam”- not even slightly apologetic when pointed out they were in our garden so they had no right to be there. Ditto several other people- don’t seem to realise right to roam does not apply to private gardens or land used for commercial reasons- I.e. yards/lambing sheds and you must behave responsibly (e.g. close gates, don’t let dogs off leads near livestock, don’t leave rubbish, don’t worry livestock, don’t walk across crops etc).

When you add in the situation with Covid, you’d think people would be careful about touching gates etc unnecessarily- but no. Lots of people have vulnerable family members and this is just an added headache- having to constantly be aware that people may have touched the gates/railings/doors etc.

Please use the countryside responsibly- some of us live on the land you are using as a playground. You are putting our livestock at risk- please don’t feed livestock/horses for that reason- and sometimes yourself in danger. There is no excuse for leaving rubbish.

Rant over!!

This is a lot simpler in the US. Parks are for public use and private property is not.

I lived in Pennsylvania for a couple of years. I couldn't walk anywhere from my home there. The only choices were drive quite a long way to a state park or walk inside the mall.

That's one of the reasons I'm so appreciative of the public rights of way we have in the UK, and have no patience with people who aren't responsible when using them.

TrainspottingWelsh No more entitled than the land owner, that thinks it’s ok, ( against the law) to put a padlock on a gate on a public footpath

rainspottingWelsh No more entitled than the land owner, that thinks it’s ok, ( against the law) to put a padlock on a gate on a public footpath
I give up. What's wrong with you?

The other problem is that people have no understanding about rights of way, nor can they read a map of follow a footpath sign. And when they're tired from this unusual exercise they just want to get home by the quickest means, and if Google Maps shows a direct line route they will use it regardless of the fact it isn't a proper path designated as a footpath.

My friend's property and fields backs on to a large public park, much used by dog walkers. Unfortunately for the public that come from the huge housing estate nearby, there is no entrance to the park near the huge estate. She has found people in her fields looking vaguely on their phone at Google maps. and wanting to go through her garden and onto the road as a short cut. When told no they cannot do this because she values her privacy (& also because it will upset their dog - an old collie who will herd and might bite), they've complained bitterly and said 'but we can't go back the way we came as we have to go through the electric fence, and the barbed wire fence, and over the stream'

(her response: ' you should have thought about that before entering private land')

Well @Hester54 ignoring the fact that quite often people assume a right of way where none exists, so it could quite well be legally locked, it's often impossible to pursue wankers for trespass, prosecute for criminal damage and prevent the next twat that comes along doing it again. So 99.9% of the time it's been done out of desperation because there's no other option. But members of the public do have a legitimate and practical route to pursue a blocked right of way. So no excuse for taking it into your own hands. Perhaps you should spend a moment to consider why people feel they have no other option.

That's awful OP, I can't believe the nerve of some people. We live in a farm cottage on a little estate with a few other cottages, a farm and the big house. We live on the track that leads only to the other cottages, the farm and the big house and I'm shocked at the number of people I see walking down there every day just now. There are lambs in the fields by our house and I see people going down with dogs off lead. One family seems to walk there absolutely every day just now - yet before lockdown, we never once saw anyone else going for a walk down there in the 5 years we've lived here. The only people I've ever seen passing on foot live in one of the other cottages.

The other problem is that people have no understanding about rights of way, nor can they read a map of follow a footpath sign. And when they're tired from this unusual exercise they just want to get home by the quickest means, and if Google Maps shows a direct line route they will use it regardless of the fact it isn't a proper path designated as a footpath.

Maybe the simple basics of what many teenagers manage to learn doing DofE need to be put into the national curriculum.

@Hester54 why does everything have to be signed for people to behave responsibly? Has personal responsibility gone completely out of the window?

In my experience, countryside people are the selfish ones. They'd be happy for the whole country to be parcelled.off in large chunks for the minority of landowners with the vast majority left to.live in tiny airless towns and cities with maybe a few crowded parks as a sop.
@bumblingbovine49 what did you have for dinner tonight? Did it come from a field in the UK? Very likely so you have as much interest as any of us in keeping our food supplies secure.

Can you print out a few "Covid 19 confirmed, self isolating" and attach to a few fences around your property.

I bet that some of these mums putting their young children into lambing pens/ fields with ewes and lambs are pregnant . Or will be washing the children’s clothes / wellies once they are home.

The vast majority of people are already in the cities! The industrial revolution has happened in case you missed it DdraidGoch!

The countryside is a mix of small farms and bigger landowners. The rights of way are marked on a definitive map and making changes to it is very difficult although sometimes necessary.

As the urban population has expended and wanted to come to the countryside in cars it has made a huge difference to land use and appearance in the highly visited areas. Most farmers don’t have huge issues with visitors but visitors who are irresponsible are a thundering nuisance. The higher the traffic of visitors the bigger the number of nuisance ones. It’s inevitable.

It’s not just walkers taking short cuts. Cyclists do too - via footpaths. Now the police are stopping people using the NT car park near me, cars are parked elsewhere as I said. It’s just more annoying for all of us!

I think the years of lack of respect and abuse from the public, disregard for how food is produced, increased dog ownership and entitlement without responsibility of the right to roamers is finally culminating in a perfect storm with a the genuinely held fear many farmers have of cV19 and the impact their could have on their livelihood.

We know there are lots of hesters out there who plainly just dislike us and take glee from causing us harm if they get the opportunity to. It's not hard to see why some farmers are now desperately taking measures to try and discourage the influx of numpties to the countryside at our busiest and most difficult time of year.

Farmers are just one part of the economy that’s going to be trashed! Eventually farmers can sell up if they own the land. Most ordinary people who are also self employed don’t even have this asset and many have no work at all!

Near us, there are loads of stables with associated "cute" horses. The accessible paths near us run part them. The owners put up loads of handwritten signs saying the virus stays on the horses for 72 hours so don't pet them. Seems to have worked.
Sadly lockdown hasn't stopped people being ignorant twats.

Scrowy That’s not true, I don’t dislike you, only the entitled ones that think it’s ok to bloke public footpaths or the overly aggressive ones, that thinks you shouldn’t walk on a footpath, I cause no damage when walking freely

bellinisurge Has that been scientifically proven or just another made up thing?

My parents house is in the middle of nowhere on a single track country lane. When I was little I would regularly find random families in our garden picking flowers because they thought they were growing wild! These were tulips and daffodils! It was quite clearly a garden. Some people think that the countryside is a theme park or interactive museum.

A lot of people have no idea how to behave full stop. When I was younger it was drummed into us that you keep to the path, close gates, don't take dogs near sheep (and keep them on a lead anyway), don't go near sheep if you're pregnant! Don't drop litter etc etc Now a lot of people have no idea of the rules plus they have a huge dollop of entitlement and think they can do what they like. Same thing with driving. It SHOULD be obvious that you can't drive down twisty country lanes at high speeds because you can't know who is around the corner but sadly it isn't. I no longer take my kids on some lanes near my parents' house as it is ridiculous how often we have to throw ourselves into the banks.

Hester54. The info about the horses is not supported by Defra. It says to wash your hands after touching livestock. Touching and feeding other people’s livestock is not recommended at any time. So a notice saying not to touch or feed the horses at any time would have been sensible and better.
There is advice on using footpaths and guidance is available for landowners who can temporarily provide alternative paths if they come too close to houses, working yards and other areas where people cannot keep a safe distance. However the temporary alternative path is not without risks and the landowner would be responsible for the safety of people using it! I’ve found lots of advice for farmers and walkers and it is a case of responsibilities and duties on both sides.

Farmers are just one part of the economy that’s going to be trashed! Eventually farmers can sell up if they own the land. Most ordinary people who are also self employed don’t even have this asset and many have no work at all

No you have missed the point there a bit. Farming isn't 'trashed' people still need to eat and always will do.

My point was that individual farmers they several hundred heavily pregnant animals that also rely on them (it's calving time for a lot of people too)? What happens to all the animals while they are ill?

The majority of farmers aren't big landowners, and even the ones that own their own farm often still have some land that they rent, or have massive overdrafts and mortgages. Average Joe on the footpath generally has no idea the financial status of the farmer whose land they are crossing.

People who think farmers can just 'sell up' and move on to something else clearly have very little understanding of farming and how interconnected the business and family life are.

@BubblesBuddy

Farmers are just one part of the economy that’s going to be trashed!
I don't get what you mean here. Are you saying that it is perfectly fine to trash someone's livelihood because your job is affected too? I hope not as that would be incredibly selfish and shortsighted. Do you not eat? Don't you think that food production should be being protected and assisted now more than ever?

And please, please stop feeding, touching and disturbing other people's animals. Full stop

Yes, please stop it.

We have horses on a livery yard where some of the fields have a footpath that runs alongside them and we’ve had no end of problems with people interfering with them the last few weeks.

There’s clear signage for the public footpath, it doesn’t go into any of the horses fields, the yard, near the stables and doesn’t include free parking for people who have driven to have a nice walk in the country

We’ve had a shift around and the horses are in fields that are away from the footpath. Hasn’t stopped people though.

One of ours is a retired oldie with arthritis and has health issues so is grazed on a track system. Our yard owner caught someone on Friday in our field trying to take the track down as they didn’t think she had enough grazing and was going to report us to the RSPCA and the police as they’d had a shock from the electric fence. I’ve caught people feeding them sausage rolls and grass clippings and got a mouthful of abuse when they’ve been asked to leave them alone.

She’s loving her retirement but if people don’t leave her alone we won’t be able to manage her health conditions and we’ll have to have her put to sleep