CAMPAIGNING MP Gordon Prentice today pledged to fight on for a "right to roam" despite a government bid to sabotage his new Bill on the issue.

And the Pendle MP also vowed to make sure that in future back-benchers would not have their Private Members Bills scuppered by ministers.

Yesterday Mr Prentice published his legislation which would give ramblers the right to access to open countryside subject to safeguards to cultivated land and sites of special scientific interest.

But government sources made clear that it would not get backing and that it would be allowed to run out of Parliamentary time so environment minister Michael Meacher could introduce a watered-down scheme requiring voluntary consent for most access.

The proposal would include a fall-back position under which landowners could be compelled to open up land if they unreasonably refused access, which Mr Prentice and other campaigners feel makes the legislation too complex to work.

Today Mr Prentice said: "I want the Government to back my Bill. I am fighting on.

"My Bill is in the legislative pipeline and I am not going to withdraw it."

And he revealed that he had just been put on the House of Commons Modernisation Committee which examines procedures at Westminster. He said: "I am going to open up a second front and look at the Private Members Bill procedure so that in future no-one who comes as high in the ballot as I did at fifth can see their proposal run into the sand because of the Government.

"I want to ensure that in future there is time for the proposals to get through."

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