A group of 200 Totnes residents trespassed and ate sandwiches and Victoria sponge to highlight lack of right to roam.

On a beautiful Sunday in May a spot under the trees in an ancient woodland would seem like an idyllic location for a picnic for residents of the Devon town of Totnes.

But when a group of 200 people settled down on the grass to enjoy sandwiches and slices of Victoria sponge next to the publicly funded woodland, they were actually breaking the law.

This is because the Duke of Somerset owns much of the area’s woodlands, and they remain largely off limits to the public because they are used for a large pheasant shoot.

The duke owns 1,100 hectares (2,800 acres) of land in some of the most beautiful areas of Devon, but the vast majority of it is inaccessible to the public. This is despite the fact he has received funds for the woodland the protesters picnicked in under the English woodland grant scheme, which comes from taxpayer money.

At the same time, Ramblers is working with organisations including the RSPB and British Horse Society, National Farmers Union and Country Land and Business Association, and produced a list of recommendations to improve rights of way processes for inclusion in the draft Deregulation Bill, the Government’s drive to reduce red tape, and as part of its wider initiative ‘the great outdoors debate’s’.

What both campaigns bring to the fore is how interpretations of people’s enjoyment and use of the outdoors can be very different; as well as the need for a discussion about the (increasing) use and impact of our network of footpaths.

I really do wonder if there are links between the economic challenges facing parts of rural England as places for people to live and work and the level of access people can enjoy to the countryside? Do poor or resentful public access and poor economic performance align? Perhaps a detailed area of debate for another day???

Travellers living on a picturesque stretch of the Welsh coastline have objected to plans to open a path next to their campsite, citing an invasion of privacy. Travellers living in the Rover Way site are furious about ‘strangers’ walking along the path that skirts their 21 pitch site. Here are some other objections made to public access paths.

• A school in Plymouth wants to close a historic public right of way to protect children and staff from “violence, arsonists and suspected paedophiles” that they say blights the public access areas next to the school.They claim the anti-social beahavior in the surrounding area means it’s difficult to keep pupils safe. Rambling groups, however, have opposed the objections “on the grounds of principle”, and are fighting to preserve the right of way.

• A dispute broke out when Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson re-routed a stretch of the coastal footpath around his Lighthouse Cottages holiday home in the Lagness peninsula in the Isle of Man.Clarkson said he put up a barrier around his home to increase his family’s privacy, but there has been an ongoing right-of-way dispute with locals. Some residents condemned it as resembling a Stalag – a German prisoner of war camp. Walkers formed an action group Prowl – Public Rights of Way Langness – to fight to reverse his action.