New National River Walks

On the 8th October 2024, the government announced 9 new National River Walks. Opening access along 9 rivers in the UK, creating walks alongside the banks for all to enjoy. This is certainly a step in the right direction, but with 96% of rivers without a clear right of navigation, this is simply a drop in the ocean, a finger wedged in the bursting dam - it’s not enough.

Right to Roam groups have engaged in trespasses all across the country to demand access to all rivers - not just the 9 picked by the government. If you happen to be a resident near one of these 9 rivers, then you’re in luck - but what about the rest of us?

As Right to Roam said, “There are some 1,500 rivers in the UK - so creating walks along just 9 of them really isn’t going to cut it.”

 Then, at the end of last year on Boxing Day, the first of the 9 walks was announced in Mersey Valley. Over at the Open Spaces Society (the OG’s of commons), they were not impressed, calling it a ‘damp squib’.

Kate Ashbrook, the society’s general secretary refutes the governments claim that it will provide ‘21 kilometres of new paths’, saying; “The route is already a public footpath at least, and most of it is on the existing Trans-Pennine Trail”.

So not only is it a post code lottery as to whether or not your river will be chosen, but it seems like the new access being created isn’t new at all. A damp squib indeed.

So what could be done instead?

How about riverbank commons? All riverbanks turned into common land - with associated rights and responsibilities? Public access, with local communities making decisions about what sections of banks should be protected for nature, where dogs can go in, but access as a given, rather than a privilege or pure luck.

There has been a huge rise in river guardianship, championed by our friends over at Lawyers For Nature and River Action UK. We want to be close to our rivers, to care for our rivers, to protect our rivers. Riverbank commons could make that a reality, and completely change many people’s lives overnight.