Breadcrumbs
NCAF 8/3 Developing incentives for the accessibility and improvement of access land
3. The Agency is seeking the early advice of the Forum as the first step in the development of these ideas.
Why incentives?
4. The Countryside Agency is looking at ways to ensure that the provisions of the Government's proposed new legislation will work well in practice.
5. Incentives could be a useful tool for the positive management of access land. By incentives we mean revenue or capital payments which help:
a. improve the physical accessibility of access land so that people can get on to and move around it more easily;
b. improve the quality of access land and the experience of
visitors; and
c. ensure that as wide a range of people as possible are able to
use and enjoy access land.
6. The availability and sympathetic management of access land
may benefit from a number of actions - like the provision of entry
points to allow people to get on to a particular area of land or
the creation of new access land to link together fragments nearby.
The table below shows some of the things that could be achieved
with the use of incentives.
Tools | Purpose | Relative cost |
New public rights of way | Help people to reach ‘islands’ of access land Provide access opportunities for ‘higher users’ such as cyclists and horse riders | High |
Access furniture e.g. gates, bridges, benches | Help people enter access land easily Enable use by people with mobility problems | Low |
Access information points | Give people information on the access area , for example, where and when restrictions apply, what they can see and do | Low |
Transport facilities | Facilitate links to public transport services along with bus stops, bus walks Provide informal car parking in areas with high visitor numbers, to limit landscape impact | Medium |
Training | Training for people managing access - could include employed/voluntary rangers | Medium |
Conservation management | Create areas of down and heath through reversion of intensive farmland. Link and expand isolated areas of open country. | High |
Landscape management | Improve the landscape quality of access land through removal of eyesores, boundary renovation, erosion repair | Medium |
Special events | Develop awareness and interest through guided walks, health walks, community events | Low |
What incentives are available now?
7. There are a number of existing incentives available to
landowners and managers in England. Annex 1 gives some examples of
existing land management schemes. Our initial analysis indicates
that it may be appropriate to provide some new incentives for the
positive management of access land as existing schemes, in their
current forms, will not be able to deliver all the potential
benefits.
How do we fill the gaps?
8. There are a number of options for enabling the positive
management of access land. Our initial thoughts are:
a. a new access incentive scheme to help ensure that people can get to access land;
b. targeting of existing land management schemes to encourage
good conservation management of access land and make it more
enjoyable to visit and look at; and
c. initiatives to provide capital payments to, for example,
encourage the permanent reversion of land to open country.
9. A consistent national approach to targeting incentives will
be needed to ensure that the right mix is used to best effect in a
particular area, and to achieve best value for money.
Next steps
10. We propose to do the following work to develop the use of
incentives for access land. Any action to put new incentives in
place will be subject to Government funding and joint working with
interested parties. We might:
a. establish an access incentives working group - to discuss and agree how incentives can be used in the management of access land - members may include DETR, MAFF, CCW, FC, lottery bodies.
b. conduct research to determine the scope for effective
targeting of incentives at access land - specification to be agreed
by the working group. This could be done through a number of case
studies of potential access land managed by public and private
owners to include these issues:
- accessibility - links to PROW network, transport routes;
- fragmentation - areas with potential for reversion if
agreed;
- targeting - what will work best in what local circumstances;
and
- existing input of public funds through agricultural budgets,
agri-environment schemes.
c. pilot in the Agency's integrated access demonstration project
areas in the north and south of England. These six projects are
being set up to test how best to maximise access to the
countryside. Incentives could be piloted in these areas from summer
2001.
Advice from the Forum
15. The Agency would welcome advice on:
a. the case for applying incentives for the improvement of access land; and
b. the type of incentives that might be used for various
purposes.
c. pilot in the Agency's integrated access demonstration project
areas in the north and south of England. These six projects are
being set up to test how best to maximise access to the
countryside. Incentives could be piloted in these areas from summer
2001.
Annex 1
Examples of existing countryside grant
schemes
Scheme | Objectives | Lead | Relevant features of the scheme | Payment rates |
Countryside Stewardship Scheme | -Sustain the beauty and diversity of the landscape -Improve and extend wildlife habitats -Conserve archaeological sites and historic features -Improve opportunities for countryside enjoyment -Restore neglected land or features - Create new habitats and landscapes | MAFF | Anyone who owns or manages suitable land may apply. Scheme open to farmers and non-farming land owners and managers, including voluntary bodies, local authority and community groups. Agreements usually for 10 years Eligible landscape types and features: chalk & limestone grassland, lowland heath, waterside land, coastal land, upland, old meadows and pasture, historic features, field boundaries, field margins, community forest and urban fringe, new access. | Annual management: Recreating grassland on cultivated fields £280/ha/yr Re-creating heathland £275/ha/yr Regenerating heather on improved land £70/ha/yr regenerating suppressed heather moor £50/ha/yr Open access - base payment of £150/yr plus £35/ha/yr. Linear access - Base payment £150/yr Footpaths £0.15/m/yr Access for horses and cyclists £0.30/m/yr Paths for people with disabilities £0.30/m/yr Access for educational visits £500/yr Hedge laying £3/m Planting new hedges £3/m Stone wall restoration £12/m Bridle gate £100 Kissing gate £130 Kissing gate suitable for disabled people £200 Timber stile £30 Ladder stile £55 Step-over stile in stone wall £30 Step-through stile in stone wall £30 Footbridge £125 Bench £30 hard standing £5/m2 hard standing paths for disabled £7.50/m2 Eyesore clearance £120 |
Environmentally Sensitive Areas | To help safeguard areas of the countryside where the landscape, wildlife or historic interest is of national importance | MAFF | Stage 1 ESA cover Broads, Pennine Dales, Somerset Levels, South Downs, West Penwith Stage 2 ESA cover Breckland, Clun, North Peak, Suffolk River Valleys, Test Valley. Stage 3 Avon valley, Exmoor, Lake District, North Kent Marshes, South Wessex Downs, South West Peak. Stage 4 Blackdown Hills, Cotswold Hills, Dartmoor, Essex Coast, Shropshire Hills, Upper Thames Tributaries.
| Management prescriptions and payment rates for different tiers vary between ESAs Public Access Tier £170/ha/yr for 10 m Provision and restoration of stiles and gates for public access: timber stile £30 ladder stile £40 step over stone stile £30 step-through stile in stone wall £30 bridle gate £100 kissing gate £130 kissing gate for disabled £200 Provision and restoration of footbridges £125 wide strip hedge planting £1.75 / m hedge laying £3/m rebuilding stone walls £14-18/m |
Habitat Restoration project | Pilot landscape improvement scheme in the Blackmore Vale, Ouse Valley, River Alde estuary, and the Sherwood Forest. | English Nature | The scheme utilises existing grants to deliver landscape improvements, it runs in partnership with local wildlife trusts, FWAG and the Environment Agency. | Uses existing schemes |
Wildlife Enhancement Scheme on SSSI’s | Scheme to encourage beneficial management on SSSIs. | English Nature | Scheme offers annual management grants, and capital works to restore or improve SSSIs. Access is not generally part of scheme objectives. Payment rates vary between SSSI’s. | Not applicable to access |
Tyr Gofal - Wales only | CCW | A whole farm agri environment scheme. Payments for managing existing habitats, recreating habitats such as heathland, semi-natural grassland, restoring and maintaining features such as stone walls, hedges, and archaeological structures, payments for creation of new access routes and open access areas. | Footpaths £150 plus £0.15/m/yr bridleways £150 plus £0.30/m/yr diabled routes £150 plus £0.30/m/yr Access areas £150 plus £35/ha/yr educational access £500 per farm. Bridle gate £100-150 kissing gate £110-160 disabled gate £250 wooden stile £30 stone step style £34 ladder stile £55 hard surface footpath £ 5.50/m bridle way £5.50/m disabled path £9./m footbridge £175 bench seat £30-40 signs £7-10 each hard standing for car parks £5/m2 |
