Please note the Angling Trust and Fish Legal have confirmed that:

“The current position of the law is settled in that no general public rights to navigate in non-tidal rivers exists in England and Wales.”

This position was confirmed by the Welsh Assembly Government when it considered the canoeing situation on Welsh rivers in 2010 – their report confirmed that “anyone canoeing without the agreement of the riparian and fishery owner is trespassing”. This position has also been confirmed by the Dartmoor National Park Authority and the Environment Agency. It has not been challenged in law by the governing bodies of canoeing.

Above the flow of tide the land beneath the river or stream is privately owned so that while the public can acquire navigational rights over such water they cannot have them as a right.

It has been held that rights of navigation on inland waterways are not analogous to rights-of-way on the land [ Wills’ Trustees versus Cairngorm Canoeing and Sailing School 1976 SLT 162 and AG ex rel  Yorkshire Derwent Trust and Malton town Council v Brotherton (1992)]. All ER 230.