POP STAR Madonna's newest fans are hundreds of Yorkshire farmers and landowners.

She and her film director husband, Guy Ritchie, won the major part of their appeal against incorrectly-mapped public access land on their Ashcombe Estate under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.

There have been hundreds of similar appeals in Yorkshire.

The law creates a new right for the public to walk over land declared as open countryside and, in September, parts of Yorkshire will be among the first areas in England to be opened for access.

The Country Land and Business Association has welcomed the appeal decision. "It highlights serious errors in mapping which the CLA first exposed in Yorkshire," said the CLA's regional director, Dorothy Fairburn.

"There are hundreds of appeals in progress in Yorkshire which do not enjoy the high profile of the Madonna case. This was a victory for common sense.

"For the past year we have been pointing out the inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the mapping process and questioning why landowners should have to pay for the Countryside Agency's mistakes.

"The whole issue of open access puts a burden on all farmers and land managers, in addition to which we have had to provide expert help to our members who found their gardens, their woodland and their cultivated fields wrongly mapped as open countryside for public access.

"Our members, who own more than half the rural land in Yorkshire, and especially those whose appeals are yet to be heard, will take heart from this decision.

"Some areas are still in the consultation process and we will continue to urge members to lodge an appeal at the earliest possible opportunity if they feel their land has been incorrectly mapped."

The Countryside Agency has confirmed that, in areas which include most of North and West Yorkshire, a total of 1,818 appeals have been lodged. More than 600 have been successful so far, with more than 100 partly so, and hundreds yet to be determined.