Natural England

Matters arising from the 31st meeting of the countryside Agency

ACCESS LEGISLATION IMPLEMENTATION

Purpose of note: To update the Board on our work on access legislation implementation:

Introduction

1. Part 1 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 gives people a new right to walk over open country and registered common land. DEFRA's Public Service Agreement target is to open up access to this land in England by the end of 2005. The Agency's Wider Welcome Implementation Team is responsible for assisting DEFRA in the delivery of this target.

Regional commencement

2. In a written statement to Parliament on 28 November 2002 the Rural Affairs Minister, Alun Michael announced that the new right for the public to walk on mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land in England will be rolled out on a region by region basis. The Minister also announced that he intends to open up land in the first two regions, the South East and Central Southern England, to public access during the summer of 2004. 

Risk management

3. Agency Board members attended a seminar on risk management on 13 November. Implementing the new right of access has been identified as an area of high risk to the Agency and we are putting measures in place to manage this risk.

Mapping 

4. Area 2 Lower North West - the provisional map for area 2 was issued on 11 November 2002. This has been well received by the NFU, CLA and the Macclesfield access mapping pressure group. 

5. Area 3 Central Southern England - the consultation on the draft map closes on 3 December 2002. We have been monitoring the flow of comments and comparing the pattern with that for areas 1 and 2. Current predictions are that we will receive between 1500 and 2000 comments.

6. Area 4 Upper North West - the draft map for area 4 will be issued on 10 December. Initial publicity is being put in place to alert user groups and landowners to the issue of the map. Roadshows have been organised for January and the consultation will close on the 10 March 2003.

7. The remaining mapping areas are on target with regards to data capture and initial mapping. We have agreed to set up a working group with Ordnance Survey to look at the most effective ways of promulgating information to the general public on newly opened areas. 

8. We are working with Binnie Black and Veatch to renegotiate the contract with the aim of achieving price and delivery certainty. This work will be completed next month.

9. We have been working with DEFRA on the introduction of a regulation which allows us to correct minor errors on the provisional and conclusive map. This will enable us to make small changes to the map after issue, rather than having to withdraw it and reissue it. Consultation on this regulation has now closed and DEFRA hope that the regulation will be laid before Christmas. This means that if any errors on area 2 provisional map come to light we will be able to correct them in accordance with the procedures set out in the regulation.

Appeals

10. Area 1 South East - to date 28 appeals have been received by PINS for Area 1.  All have requested the written representation procedure. We have previously received comments for most of the appeals submitted. Most appeals are on the grounds that land has been mapped as open country when the appellant believes it should not.  The appeal period closes on 7 January 2003.

11. Area 2 Lower North West - opened for appeals 18 November. The Agency has received 2 appeals for this area to date. The appeal period closes on 18 February 2003.

12. The Agency is working on 3 scenarios for each mapping area for resource planning purposes. The 3 scenarios are 200, 400 and 600 appeals for each mapping area. 

Restrictions

13. We expect regulations on restrictions to be made in February 2003. The Agency has to produce statutory guidance on the restrictions system for the other relevant authorities (eg national parks). It will be put to the Secretary of State for approval next summer, to allow the system to open for business in the first two mapping areas on 2 December 2003. We have already consulted on key principles and are now refining the detail. 

14. The Agency has to operate a system allowing local restrictions on the new public access rights. This will involve significant IT development ( reflecting the complexity of the legislation and regulations) and operation of a national contact centre to help process restrictions casework - by phone , email and letter. We are currently out to tender for this work as a single contract. 

Dedication of permanent access land

15. Regulations allowing dedications should be made early in the new year. Guidance on the dedication process will also be published next year. 

16. The various landowning parts of Government are being encouraged to decide what land, if any, to dedicate. The Forestry Commission is committed to dedicating its freehold estate. There may be a case for devising a lottery-based incentive programme to encourage dedication of key private sites. 

Information

17. In line with our duties under Section 20 of the CROW Act 2000 we are working on the development of a new Country Code. We are running an internal consultation with Agency Board members and staff at the moment. Plans for external consultation will be put to the Board in February 2003. We plan to launch the Code in Spring 2004. 

Access facilitation

18. We have reached broad consensus with DEFRA that access facilitation measures will be important to the success of the implementation of the CROW access rights - to improve the accessibility of access land, help landowners deal with any public safety issues arising and to minimise the need for statutory restrictions.

19. We are preparing proposals for DEFRA on the access facilitation measures that could be put in place. We will consult the National Countryside Access Forum and others on our proposals in the New Year.

Nadia Little

3 December 2002