@Bloodyboiling I was thinking of the problems islanders face thanks to right to roam when I saw a PP claim it works fine in Scotland but I couldn't find anything online to back up what friends have told me. A crofter I got speaking to once at the Royal Highland told me not only were his animals worried and killed, shit and litter left all over his land, he once found wild campers hacking down his fencing to use the posts for a fire and a family who decided that camping in his barn was wild camping and their right under right to roam!
Tbh, people seem to bleat "right to roam!" whenever challenged, like they are warding off vampires with a crucifix. There are lots of exemptions to the legislation they don't seem to be aware of, the general public make a lot of assumptions. Try walking on MOD land or accessing spaces you are charged entry for. Also, grass is a crop, people! Fields where hay is being grown are not for walking in! There is also a section 6 to the legislation that says if someone develops their land for their own recreational use and public access interferes with that, they have a right to stop access. And no one knows the countryside code or thinks they are exempt.
Basically, nowhere in the UK do rights of access trump a landowners right to use or enjoy their property for appropriate use. Right to roam only works if it has no or positive effect for walkers AND landowners. It's a social contract as much as a legal one and in recent years, it is breaking down. All the examples I listed of what has personally happened to my property and animals I know are only the tip of the iceberg. No one can watch their animals or land 24/7. Often, people only know that someone has caused a problem when they come across sick, injured or dead animals, littering or damage. The offender is long gone, so they act with impunity while we mend the damage and pay the bills. As I said previously, the only way I can keep my ponies safe in the summer is to bring them in off their field during the day, behaviour has become so bad since Covid, so right to roam actually stops me from using my land for its intended purpose. I used to think education was the answer, but I have found people on this site to be shockingly entitled and belligerent when it comes to being told not to feed or handle other people's animals, even when we explain why, so that won't solve the problem either. If some numpty who has no idea how to handle ponies gets hurt or a child is seriously injured because their idiot parent has climbed a locked gate from the path I have fenced off for their access to place them on a ponies back without my permission, I could be sued and I can't afford that. Feeding animals by hand, even if it is just grass you have pulled up in their field, changes behaviour and can put a handler and other animals at risk. I have talked to local farmers who have had so much trouble with dog walkers that now all sheep come into lambing sheds for months on end, which isn't the healthiest way for them to live and costs more in antibiotics etc, but they feel like it is the better option than dog attacks and children chasing and picking up lambs while their doting parents film them so the can make memories.
No system is perfect and right to roam is only tolerable for us because we don't have the sheer volume of people that access the countryside in England, so fewer arseholes. And I have to stress, most of the people I meet are lovely and it is great to share with them, but the damage and distress caused by the minority is awful. There is no way I would vote for right to roam if I lived in England, life would be hell. What the government needs to do is to protect and extend the access network but that would cost them money. Making access a free for all puts the cost on landowners.