Breadcrumbs
NCAF 12/1 Mapping open country and registered common land in England - an update on progress
Mapping Progress
On the 12th November 2001 the Countryside Agency issued the draft map for the south east and lower north west mapping areas. The launch marked the start of a three month public consultation on the maps which closes on the 11th February 2002.
To date 16% of England has been mapped. In the south east a total of 13,3645 hectares of open country and 13,364 hectares of registered common land have been mapped. This equates to 3% of the south east mapping area. In the lower north west we have identified and mapped 1,069,777 hectares of open country and 118,244 hectares of registered common land. This amounts to 13% of the lower north west region.
Mapping Consultation
The public consultation phase of the mapping programme is as important as producing the maps. The Agency have invested a great deal of time in making sure that anyone who is interested in the process can easily find out where to see the maps and how they can comment on them.
In the two lead areas we have distributed a total of 7750 maps. These have gone to county, district and London borough councils, parish councils, local access forums, library authorities, relevant national park authorities and the various interest groups specified in regulations. Maps have been put on display in local authority offices and in at least one library in each library authority area. A copy of the map of common land is available for comparison with the original maps and registers in the offices of commons registration authorities.
The maps can also be viewed and downloaded from the website www.countryside.gov.uk/access/mapping. During the first week of consultation the website received just over 1.3 million 'hits' because of the huge initial general interest stimulated by media exposure of the address. This made it difficult or slow to access on occassions, but once the initial surge of interest died down the system became more quickly accessible and is now working efficiently.
The Agency are running a number of roadshows throughout each region. People can come along to a roadshow, see the maps, hear a short presentation and watch an explanatory video and talk to an Agency representative if they wish to. The roadshows are open to the public from 12.30 to 19.30 with presentations at 13.15 and 18.30. We are running 16 of these events in the north west and 13 in the south east. The locations were decided upon after consultation with the main interest groups, and are distributed throughout the mapped areas to make it as easy as possible for people to reach them. The locations are also chosen to be accessible to people with disabilities.
To ensure that local people know what is going on we have also placed advertisements in local papers publicising the consultation, including the dates of the roadshows and the closing date for the consultation period. We have also placed billboard adverts in a number of public transport venues publicising the helpline and web site address and urging people to "get informed and get involved". We have also produced region specific leaflets which explain the process and include details on the roadshows and map display venues; these have been distributed very widely in each region - including a mail out to every registered agricultural holding.
Analysing the Responses
Comments submitted on the draft maps have to be in writing for us to be able to consider them formally.. This can be done electronically over the web site, at the roadshows or by post to our consultants. To make this process as easy as possible we have provided a user friendly form which makes clear which information is essential. This should ensure that people give us all the information we need to be able to consider a comment properly.
Every comments received will be recorded in a database and assessed carefully before a decision is made about whether any change need to be made to the map at the provisional stage. Regulations (due out in the late spring) will determine how we present the provisional maps and other information at the next stage.
A copy of the timetable for the remaining regions is attached to this paper, and a full set of maps will be available at the meeting for inspection.
