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Campaigners have taken part in a mass trespass in Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Ashton-in-Makerfield constituency over the right to roam in privately-owned green spaces.<\/b><\/p>\n
They walked on to the Winstanley Hall estate in Wigan as part of their calls for a change in the law to bring in a Scottish-style right to responsible access to land and water that is privately owned.<\/p>\n
Right to Roam co-director Nadia Shaikh said they hoped the protest would get Burnham’s attention.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for developer Kingswood Homes, who are proposing to build about 400 homes on the land, said their plans included making more than 18 acres (0.07 sq km) publicly accessible.<\/p>\n
The protest involved dozens of people walking on public footpaths and then going through a gap in the metal fencing around the site to access the private land.<\/p>\n
Shaikh said there was right to roam access over just 1% of Burnham’s constituency and “so we are here to try and get his attention, and to talk about access in this way”.<\/p>\n
She said the site should not be fenced off and the thousands of residents living nearby should be able to access it to have “a lovely one-hour walk that will just give people that sense of being in nature and calm”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n