CLOSED areas of Dartmoor could be opened up to walkers much sooner than the five years expected when the Right to Roam passed into law last year.
It was generally supposed that ramblers' rights would not be established until the whole country was adequately mapped and that this might take as much as five years.
But the RA said last week that it was writing to Environment Secretary John Prescott to ask for commons and areas of more than 600 metres to be declared open as soon as possible, as they were already fully mapped. 'Much of Dartmoor's restricted areas could fall into these two categories,' said Nicky Warden, the RA's campaign co-ordinator.
She urged members of the organisation and other walkers to write to Mr Prescott backing the campaign and to lobby their MPs for support.
l Young walkers from West Devon are being invited to join a new group set up by the RA for people in their twenties and thirties.
The county-wide young people's group was set up at a meeting in Exeter this week to encourage more to join.
'Some may be put off by the impression that we are a lot of old fogeys,' said Devon branch secretary Eileen Linfoot.
'They may be able to recruit more if they are on their own than with the rest of us.'
But she said the aim was not to allow the young people to walk faster. 'Some of our 80 year-olds could easily outpace the youngsters,' she noted.