Two years ago, this blog put a tentative toe in the sensitive waters of river (and land) ownership – by asking who owns the River Sid – and its waters?
It is a very sensitive subject across England, as The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us by Nick Haynes demonstrates, where he tries to literally navigate the river system and the river banks along it. As he points out, though, access to land is not an issue in Scotland: The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gives everyone rights of responsible access over land and inland water throughout the country, with Scotland enjoying some of the most progressive access rights in the world.
On the other hand, as Nick Hayes says looking at ‘the battle for England’s waterways‘, “Of the 42,700 miles of inland waterways in England, the public has a right of access to 1,400 miles, just 3 per cent. In England, if you’re by a river, on a river or in a river, there’s a 97 per cent chance that you’re not allowed to be there.”
Looking at what a lawyer might say if you own property near a river: “If the river runs through a landowner’s land, that landowner will own the riverbed. Whereas if the river forms a boundary of a landowner’s land, that landowner will own the riverbed up to the centre of the river along the stretch of the river which forms their boundary, their neighbour owning the other half.”
As for finding out who owns what bit of land in the Sid Valley, a simple search and the payment of a fee of £4 on HM Land Registry will provide the answers – as conducting a Land Registry search is what anyone about to buy property is required to do anyway.
And yet whilst more than 70% of English water industry is in foreign ownership [the Pennon Group which owns SWW is publicly listed on the stock exchange], very little of the actual land (and therefore its river banks) is foreign owned, according to the land ownership map from Private Eye.
Finally, though, whilst the law is clear and the registry is transparent, there is still a certain coyness about land ownership and access to it – as demonstrated by years of tortuous negotiations over the Sidford to Sidbury Cycle/Footpath let alone the Sidmouth to Feniton route.
Let’s hope the current build up of informal conversations and cooperation over projects can create a positive level of trust for the future natural development of the River Sid. There’s no reason why not!
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