Peppa Pig Next

Notices like this are appearing on the moors. The assumption is that the mental age of visitors to Blacka and the moors is about the same as that of the managers and those responsible for the patronising graphics. A previous incarnation of this message told visitors to "Get A Grip!"

A few years ago I wrote a letter to the Peak District Local Access Forum about dog walking. I had got wind of a move from the representative of the Moorland Association trying to get the LAF to demand that all dog walking be banned on land designated as SSSI in the Peak. This offended my sense of fairness and I duly made my own representations in opposition. It annoyed me that I had only found out about this by some kind of fluke. I also knew that Blacka had been made SSSI only through an administrative cockup in the designation process rather than careful weighing up of the evidence and special circumstances. Somewhere I've got a copy of my letter but, for the moment, my word will have to be taken that it contained a comprehensive list of reasons why the Moorland Assn's case should be rejected. It was. But among the other comments in my letter I mentioned that many people came to holiday in this national park and often brought their dogs with them. When they got here they found the place distinctly unwelcoming: warnings about dogs everywhere, impossible stiles for dogs and routes that started off accessible and then ran into 'no dogs here' notices plus many other things. Amazingly nobody seemed to have thought about this before.

The upshot was that something happened. Probably other people had expressed similar views and alongside my letter this led to some under-occupied bureaucrats deciding they could develop a project and get funding for their jobs and perhaps other people's too. The result was this Paws on the Moors scam, an offshoot of that even bigger scam Moors for the Future. The Heritage Lottery Fund and others coughed up the dosh and a website was born plus lots of publicity handouts, educational material (indoctrination to you and me) etc.

The Paws on the Moors people will probably point to great things they have done for paths for dog walkers, of which I've yet to see the evidence. But the central problem remains as it always was. Under the assumed guise of being dog and dog walker friendly they are actually propagandising for the same landowning interests that have always ruled here. For the five months of the year when people are most likely to want to enjoy the great outdoors with their dogs they are being told dogs must be on leads. In the case of Blacka this is on a place set aside for being a 'public walks and pleasure ground' to distinguish it from surrounding moors, and a place where recreation must take precedence over 'conservation'.