GOVERNMENT legislation giving ramblers the "right to roam" on open and uncultivated countryside will be a suitable memorial to former Labour leader John Smith, Burnley MP Peter Pike has claimed.

Supporting ministerial moves to give a statutory right of access to hills and moors, he said that it would be of great benefit to East Lancashire people.

Mr Pike, who praised his Pendle neighbour Gordon Prentice for prodding the government into action said: "The former leader of the Labour Party John Smith had a great interest in this subject.

"I hope that the government's Bill will be introduced in November 1999.

"A Bill on the right to roam will be a tribute to the late John Smith and no greater Bill could be passed in the Labour centenary year."

He said he was proud that people could get off a train at Burnley Central Station and walk right into the countryside along a council footpath without crossing a single road.

And he said around his constituency were Pendle Hill, the Trough of Bowland, the Forest of Bowland, Wycoller and the Bronte moorlands.

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