Ramblers’ groups and walkers who enjoy ambling through the countryside have welcomed a government decision, announced over the Christmas break, to abandon a Tory policy which many feared could result in the loss of public access to thousands of miles of footpaths.
Public access: the government has scrapped a deadline for registering footpaths and bridle ways, in a move praised by the Ramblers and other campaigners
The last government set a deadline of 2031 for all rights of way in England to be added to an official map. The Tories had previously committed to scrap the policy.
Once recorded as rights of way and added to the definitive map, paths are protected under the law for people to use. But many suspected that the deadline would see tens of thousands of miles of public footways being cut off for evermore if landowners somehow missed the deadline.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where Steve Reed is the Secretary of State, yesterday announced it would remove the registration deadline, with at least 40,000 miles of paths still unregistered and missing from the official map.
Landowners condemned it as the latest “attack” on farmers.
“A backlog of thousands of requests, some dating back to the 1980s, meant that many attempts to register paths and bridleways on the map in time for the 2031 deadline were likely to be missed by cash-strapped councils,” the Grauniad reported.
“Some of these paths, which are well-used by walkers, cyclists and horse riders, date back hundreds or even thousands of years, but are not officially recorded or protected.”
The deadline will be repealed “when parliamentary time allows”, DEFRA said.
Whitehall acknowledges that local authorities have struggled under the burden of recording historic rights of way before the 2031 deadline.
Rights of way: DEFRA minister Sue Hayman
“These well-trodden routes, many of which have been in place for hundreds of years, are a part of our shared heritage and it is critical that we bring forward these measures to protect their long-term future,” said Baroness Hayman, the minister in charge of access.
Ross Maloney, the chief executive of The Ramblers Association, said: “The government’s decision to end the threat to thousands of miles of historic rights of way in England is a fantastic step forward in making sure everyone can enjoy the benefits of walking in nature.
“Not only are these paths an integral part of our shared heritage, but they will also have a critical role to play in the future by helping people live healthier, happier lives.”
But property owners, many of whom have for decades tried to restrict the right of way for public access, grumbled over the decision. “Campaigners have had decades to record rights of way, and the decision to scrap the 2031 cut-off date has been made without engaging with those who will be affected, inflicting significant uncertainty on farmers and land managers,” moaned Gavin Lane, the deputy president of something called the Country Land and Business Association.
According to Lane, “The vast majority of landowners are keen to promote responsible access, and work in collaboration with DEFRA and campaigning groups to ensure people can continue to experience the benefits of the countryside in decades to come.”
Lane said that the countryside already had “an enormous amount of public access”, with 140,000 miles of footpath and 3.5million acres of public access land in England and Wales.
But the registering process was another victim of 14 years of Tory austerity: an additional task lumbered on to local councils, including Croydon, at a time when they were being given ever-diminishing funding with which to pay for the work to be done, meaning that the registering of public rights of way was being left undone. Perhaps deliberately…
“Competing financial pressures and inadequate funding left limited resources available for councils to process applications for rights of way and a backlog of cases has grown, which made the 2031 target a tall order unlikely to be met,” according to the Local Government Association.
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A Croydon example must be Barrington Road, which is a “paper road” (and/or possibly a RUPP [Road used as a Public Path?], but is just a footpath btw a bend in Woodcote Park Ave and the end of Elton Rd, up in Woodcote, near the top of Foxley Lane and the boundary with LB of Sutton?
This is great news.
“The deadline will be repealed “when parliamentary time allows”, DEFRA said.”
Good to bag the publicity now. But will this be an empty promise? If not now, when? ‘Jam tomorrow’, and ‘events, my dear boy, events’ spring to mind…