THE president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) used his visit to the Yorkshire Show to issue a stark warning over new Right to Roam legislation.

Mark Hudson voiced his fears that the new rules would lead to confusion and disagreement between landowners and the public.

He also said there was not enough of a distinction between the Countryside Code, launched earlier this month, and the Right to Roam legislation, which is being introduced in some parts of the country in the autumn.

The regulations will open up areas of mapped land to ramblers, but Mr Hudson warned that many areas will still be off-limits.

He said: "Right to Roam is a phrase we have got to get away from, because the public will get extremely confused.

"They will think they have a right to roam anywhere, which is not the case.

"The public are going to find it extremely hard to understand what areas of land are open and what are not."

Landowners will be able to block access to their land for 28 days a year.

Mr Hudson said that this could lead to even more confusion.

He said: "If landowners and the public cannot communicate with each other when land is closed, there will be confusion and a lack of clarity, which will lead to disagreements."

Parts of the South-East and the North-West will be opened up on September 19, which has been designated National Walking Day.

Sue Harrison, deputy director of the CLA for the North-West, said: "There is another problem, of course, that much of the land that has been mapped has on it features which are inherently dangerous.

"In the North-East, there are lots of mineshafts and old lead mines. People do not even know where some of them are.

"Some of this land has been mapped and farmers only find these shafts when, for example, a sheep falls down a hole as it has been covered by heather."