Natural England

FAQs

What is dedication?

Section 16 of the Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act 2000 Act gives landowners and long leaseholders the opportunity to voluntarily dedicate land for public access. A dedication lasts in perpetuity or, where relevant, for the duration of a long lease. 

Making a dedication can:

• give a legal public right of access to land that would not otherwise be covered by the CROW Act, such as woodland; or  
• ensure that land mapped as open country or registered common land will continue to be access land in the future, even if it ceases to be open country or registered common land.   

Dedication can also be used to create higher rights of access, for example for horse riding or canoeing. 

Dedication offers landowners the opportunity to share public access to their land forever, should they wish to do so. This will ensure that the right of access remains in force even after the land changes hands in the future – while allowing for access to be excluded if the land should at some point become ‘excepted land’, as defined by Schedule 1 to the CROW Act. 

Dedication can also reduce the impact of public access by spreading visitors across a wider area, and may be used to link access across the English countryside. Dedicated land becomes access land and is therefore subject to the same management arrangements and public liability obligations as for mapped access land. Further details