Councils are using Public Spaces Protection Orders to introduce a swathe of new restrictions on countryside activities. These new orders significantly affect people’s ability to enjoy the freedom of wild open spaces, and even in some cases to stay safe in these spaces.
These restrictions include bans on fire (including camping stoves), bans on wild camping, bans on feeding or stroking ponies, and bans on wild swimming. The orders are drawn so broadly that they prevent people from enjoying the countryside, rather than targeting the specific activities that cause risk of damage or harm.
We call for these orders to be scrapped and targeted on activities that present a risk of harm.
Bans on fires and camping stoves
Fires (including camping stoves) are now banned from key natural areas, including the New Forest, Peak District, Derbyshire Dales, Dorset heathland and beaches, beaches near Poole, moorlands near Bolton, and Calderdale moorlands.
Some of these orders (such as New Forest) ban ‘lighting of fires’, and name particular items such as disposable BBQs, camping stoves or fireworks. (The Derbyshire Dales ‘open fires and barbecues’ PSPO also includes any ‘stove’). But other orders ban any ‘naked flame’, such as Elmbridge, which bans naked flames in all its open spaces and recreation grounds. This ban would include cigarette lighters or matches.
Some PSPOs even ban all use of items that pose any ‘risk of fire’, which would include items such as magnifying glasses, glass bottles, and perhaps even some spectacles.
For example, Dorset Council’s PSPO bans:
a. placing, throwing or dropping items likely to cause a fire,
b. lighting fires, barbecues (including disposable barbecues), Chinese lanterns or fireworks,
c. using items which either (i) cause a naked flame or (ii) pose a risk of fire.
An identical order is active in most parts of the Peak District.
Some parts of this PSPO target harmful activities: restriction (a) is justified, since it targets an action likely to cause a fire risk; restriction (b) could also be justified in many areas, so long as ‘fires’ is taken to mean ‘open fires’. However, restriction (c) prohibits all use of fire, including ordinary camping stoves, which are part of the normal equipment of any outdoors enthusiast.
A Peak District walker concerned about this order wrote to the Manifesto Club, and noted that the order would limit a wide range of valuable activities, including:
warmup breaks for youth and school groups or conservation volunteers; fire lighting demos and training for schools and adults; mountain rescue activities and training
If camping stoves are used correctly then they do not present a fire risk, and indeed they are an important part of enjoying and staying safe in natural environments. It is basic mountain safety that you should always carry the means to make a hot drink, especially when out in bad weather or when wild camping. To ban stoves is to prevent people from warming themselves up (thermos flasks are heavy and don’t last overnight).
It is particularly absurd that these bans on camping stoves extend over the winter months, when fire risk is small but the risk of getting cold is higher.
Some of these orders (such as Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) allow an exemption for those who have obtained permission from the council, which in theory would allow activity groups to use and train young people in fire use. Other orders (such as the Peak District) do not include this exemption, meaning that groups such as the DofE would not be able to get permission to use camping stoves in the area.
It is also worth noting that disposable barbecues have been banned in areas where there is no fire risk, such as pebble or sandy beaches. Of course, if people leave their barbecue behind, this would classify as the offence of littering; but if correctly used then the barbecue would have no negative impact upon the natural environment, and potentially a very positive impact upon people’s enjoyment of the space.
This restriction on fire is growing, with new orders introduced each year. For example, a new PSPO by Westmorland and Furness council would ban fires and camping in sections of the Lake District. Derbyshire Dales council is planning to extend its fire-ban PSPO (which covers land that it owns) to restricted footpaths and cycleways.
Wild camping
In July, Dorset Council banned camping on beaches, joining other councils including Worthing, Sefton, and North East Lincolnshire. Camping is also now banned in wilder areas, including the New Forest, Peak District, and Hopes Nose on the Torbay coast, as well as certain areas in the Lake District.
These orders fail to distinguish between damaging wild camping – which leaves litter or damages vegetation, or involves long stays – and wild camping that is overnight and leaves no trace (aside from a small circle of flattened grass). Redcar and Cleveland Council‘s consultation on a wild camping ban presented all campers as aggressive and in conflict with ‘local people’.
Of course, destructive wild camping should be punished: any intentionally discarded material (such as discarded BBQs or toilet paper) should be a criminal offence. But wild camping that leaves no trace is one of life’s great pleasures: there is nothing to beat waking up to a view of the mountains or the sea. Wild campers are often the people who love natural environments the most, and would not leave litter or cause damage (indeed, they often remove other people’s litter when they find it). These PSPOs criminalise the positive activity along with the harmful one.
However, these restrictions have not been without challenge. BCP council dropped plans to ban camping and sleeping in vehicles on the Dorset coast, after several members of the public objected to plans in the PSPO consultation. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court last year affirmed the right to wild camp on Dartmoor, as part of access rights.
Wild swimming
Several councils have used PSPOs to ban wild swimming. North Lincolnshire Council has banned open water swimming in the whole district, with a prohibition on:
No entry into open water, for the purposes of diving, jumping, paddling or swimming, by any person within North Lincolnshire in the areas outlined in red, shown on Map A. Other than as part of a recognised open water swimming club, where permission of the landowner has been obtained.
This PSPO in North Lincolnshire appeared in 2025, replacing a previous PSPO that had made it an offence not to get out of open water when asked to do so. Imogen Radford from The Outdoor Swimming Society said that the local community rejected the plans in the consultation, but were completely ignored:
The council carried out a consultation last year about extending the PSPO for a further three years, and the community voted against this. However, not only did the council continue but they actually changed the PSPO to a complete ban on swimming, with absolutely no consultation on the new wording, no publicity, and no explanation. Driving swimmers out of local lakes does nothing to help people learn about open water and how to keep themselves safe, and is completely inappropriate.
A Pendle PSPO banned swimming in ponds or streams, while Sefton has banned swimming in lakes, ponds or pools (unless specifically allowed).
Salford Council’s PSPO bans not only jumping from bridges in Salford Quays, but also any ‘unauthorised swimming’ in the area. Meanwhile, Somerset Council has banned swimming at Abbots pool.
Tonbridge and Maling Council banned ‘unauthorised swimming or bathing’ from a number of ponds and rivers, and in 2023 gave out 23 FPNs for this offence. Meanwhile, Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council is planning to ban swimming at a variety of open water locations.
These bans on wild swimming are shortsighted. The experience of swimming alone in nature is quite different to that of swimming in a pool or regulated space, and it is precisely this wilder experience that people seek. Aside from the most sensitive ecosystems, swimming itself does not harm natural environments. People who go open water swimming know that they do so at their own risk; they should be informed about dangers, but not prevented from entering the sea or a lake if they wish to do so. Swimming accidents are not a reason to ban this activity, any more than would be the case with climbing or hiking accidents.
Again, there has been some resistance to swimming bans: Somerset Council dropped a plan to ban swimming in Portishead marina after the council became concerned they would be known as the ‘fun police’.
Miscellaneous: Shouting/music/fishing/petting ponies
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council introduced an order that prohibited swearing on the beach, and required people to turn down their music when requested by a council officer. The order also bans urination on beaches, including apparently in the sea in certain places, since sections of sea are included in the maps of the order.
Meanwhile, Elmbridge Council introduced an order banning fishing after 7pm or before 7am, banning not only overnight fishing but fishing in the summer daylight hours of evening or early morning. Somerset Council also banned night fishing and camping, only in this case restrictions were limited to the hours of darkness.
New Forest Council made it a crime to feed or even touch a pony or donkey. The order banned:
feeding or providing or depositing food for consumption by any New Forest pony, horse, mule or donkey; or
petting or touching any New Forest pony, horse, mule or donkey.
Since even relatively wild ponies can sometimes go for people’s picnics (and the order does not include the requirement that feeding be intentional) this would criminalise someone who had left their sandwich momentarily unattended.
We were sent the following image by a member of the public in Canterbury, who was shocked that the PSPO on her valley walk included a restriction upon ‘shouting’.
Meanwhile, NE Lincolnshire banned people from using metal detectors on the beach, and in 2023 issued two FPNs for this offence.
Another member of the public sent us this photo on the back of a toilet door in Ramsgate, showing restrictions in the nearby coastal area including BBQs, foul language, gathering in groups, begging, and drinking alcohol.
Finally, Sefton Council banned large exercise classes from the beach and other open spaces; it also banned launching paddleboards or canoes in many areas without the express written permission of the council.
Conclusion
Of course, there should be restrictions (and punishments) for activities that cause damage in the countryside, including littering, damage to wildlife, and irresponsible fire-use that presents a risk of wildfire.
But these PSPOs target a far wider range of activities than those that cause harm or significant risk of harm; as a result, they restrict our liberties and enjoyment of natural spaces, to no productive effect.
It is important to distinguish between acts that cause harm to the countryside, and those that do not. Wild camping or swimming are not in themselves damaging, and should not be classed as ‘anti-social behaviour’. Highly positive uses of the countryside are being criminalised and lumped along with littering and drug use.
These orders would do little to deter those who actually want to cause harm, since wide open spaces cannot be consistently policed. Instead, these orders restrict the benign and positive use of the countryside by the hundreds of thousands of law-abiding people who enjoy these wild areas.
The Peak District walker who contacted us about the stove ban said that these orders reflect a shift in official attitudes towards the countryside, with:
a shift away from stewardship and collaboration, and towards restriction and penalisation – a direction that is not in keeping with the ethos of open countryside access.
Rather than treat people as walking risks to natural areas – and banning entirely normal activities – it would be better for councils to treat the public as custodians and co-owners of wild spaces, with a right to enjoy them, and a responsibility to help care for and maintain them.
This positive responsibility is a far stronger basis for ensuring the preservation and flourishing of open spaces, so they can be maintained for public enjoyment (which, after all, is their point) into the future.
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