Decision details

To adopt Wiltshire Council’s Countryside Access Improvement Plan 2015 – 2024 and accompanying policies.

I approve that the Countryside Access Improvement Plan and associated policies will be adopted for the period 2015 – 2024. The policies will be reviewed when required. The main document will be considered again in 2019 to see if it is meeting the aspirations of the Wiltshire Council Business Plan and the needs of the Rights of Way and Countryside team. 

This decision was published on 9 June 2015 and will come into force on 17 June 2015.            

It is a statutory requirement of Wiltshire Council to produce the plan. The plan supports the aspirations of Wiltshire Council’s Business Plan and sets the strategic direction and policies for much of the work that the Rights of Way and Countryside team undertake.

No other options were considered as the production of the document is a statutory requirement under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000).

A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats assessment was undertaken with users of the rights of way network in the early stages of development of the plan.

A public consultation on the draft plan was undertaken and a wide range of organisations, users and adjacent authorities were invited to comment. These organisations are listed in Appendix 1. These comments were considered in the production of the final document. The consultation period was 12 weeks and ran from Friday 3 January to Friday 28 March 2014.