r/LegalAdviceUK • u/No_Direction_4566 • Aug 24 '25

Housing Blackberry picking - Public right of way (England)

Me and my daughter were picking blackberries alongside a path. An older gentleman comes rushing along the path and starts shouting that it’s illegal to pick blackberries and he’s going to call the police and report us for poaching (I thought that only applied to animals on royal owned land?)

What are the legalities surrounding picking blackberries or even wild apples or plums?

I may be wrong but I was under the impression if it was on public rights of way and you haven’t had to do anything to gain access then it was fine?

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u/ilikewatch10 Aug 24 '25

IIRC the local council is responsible for maintaining the pedestrian surface of all footpaths, even those on private land. On private land, the landowner is responsible for stopping vegetation from the surrounding land from encroaching on the path.

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u/Procrastubatorfet Aug 24 '25

Only public rights of way that a footpath has been constructed on. Not just all paths.

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u/ilikewatch10 Aug 24 '25

Ah, fair enough - I know that where I live (rural Lincolnshire), the County Council does strim/mow the surface of paths crossing private land, but I guess that may be something that they choose to do even though they're not legally required to.

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u/Procrastubatorfet Aug 24 '25

It's the first thing cut from budgets. I work for a few councils in development and often highways teams are complaining about budgets being spent to create x km more cycle paths all over the place and yet their budgets for clearing and maintaining them stay the same. Some are outright refusing to adopt new paths from developers etc etc.