Rights for ramblers - November 12, 2005

Now, ramblers in England and Wales can walk to their heart's content across over 6,000 square miles of land as new rights to countryside access came into force.

According to Reuters (November 1), about 935,000 hectares of mountains, moors, heaths and common land - which previously were banned for ramblers - can now be enjoyed and explored without any harassment.

Whereas before people were only allowed to walk on paths, now they can roam freely wherever they choose. This is surely a major breakthrough for campaigners who have demanded this new right for many years. The Countryside Agency and landowners worked overtime to map the country and see how they could agree on opening it for the people while seeing that no harm came to farmland and any strictly private areas.

In Malta, it seems we are still many years behind to reach such an amicable solution for the ramblers. According to the latest news, the local Ramblers' Association is still struggling to save our countryside (what's left of it!) from the rape of land grabbers and exploiters.

It is a disgrace to hear how our virgin land is being sold to foreigners; many pathways closed to the public and the Ramblers' Association given no hope from the powers that be of achieving some honourable right for the people to roam the countryside like the English are now doing.

One just cannot understand why the government and the authorities are so insensitive to such a pitiful situation when so much could be achieved for the common good. While much is being done to restore monuments, gardens, valleys, etc and to keep Malta clean, one cannot but be surprised how the same people refuse to see what can be done for the preservation of our countryside and for the people to enjoy it.

I'm sure that both Lino Bugeja and the Ramblers' Association are not going to sit on their laurels watching our countryside being raped with those responsible doing nothing. Now that Malta is a member of the EU, much pressure could be exerted to save our countryside and free it from land grabbers for the people to enjoy and explore.

I was flabbergasted to read about how the Ramblers' Association was received by the authorities. The way it was approached doesn't auger well and leaves much to be desired.

It is unbelievable and unexplainable how, according to Mr Bugeja, the discussions with the Attorney General about the opening of the coastal pathways were halted abruptly and the government backed out of publishing a definitive map of the Maltese islands to define exactly the "foreshore" and "coastal zone".

To ignore such an important association, which could do a lot of good for the tourism industry and the people in general, is sheer irresponsibility and disrespectful.

We need such voluntary associations to save our countryside and fight for people's rights. We already lost much of our land and rights (in the past 10 years, 45 pathways along the stretch of land from Gebel Ciantar along Dingli Cliffs to Migra l-Ferha were closed without authorisation); let's see what can be done to save what we still have.