Agenda item

·       Walkers rights and responsibilities

·       Landowners responsibility and rights around maintenance

·       Legal aspects of permissive paths

Officer: Richard Broadhead, Head of Rights of Way and Countryside

Richard Broadhead, Head of Rights of Way and Countryside was in attendance to give a presentation on walkers rights and responsibilities, landowners responsibility and rights around maintenance and the legal aspects of permissive paths.

There are 3851 miles of Public Rights of Way, and approximately 26,000 hectares of Access Land in Wiltshire. The public right of access is on foot only unless landowners have chosen to dedicate additional rights. About 50% is exempted land on Salisbury Plain.

Wiltshire Council’s role is to help Natural England (NE) through provision of information and on-the-ground management of the access rights, working with NE and landowners.

What does this mean in practice?

•       When the council becomes aware of an obstruction, we will prioritise investigation and any action that is found to be required, depending on the nature of the problem and the extent to which we believe the path is used by the public.

•       If the obstruction is due to something that the council itself has done, or that it should have done but has not, we will programme it for attention according to the priority set for it.

•       We will always try to resolve matters amicably by discussing the issues with the person responsible for any obstruction (if it isn’t the council itself), but if that doesn’t resolve it we have the power to serve notice for removal, or to prosecute, or both. There are variations in the legal remedies for different types of problem. Where a notice to remove or abate is served, we can take default action and recover our costs if the notice is not acted upon by the person(s) responsible for the problem.

Highways Authority Main Maintenance Duties and Responsibilities

•       Signposting of paths where they leave metalled roads and installing signage where people may otherwise have difficulty in finding their way.

•       Maintaining path surfaces (where they are maintainable at public expense – most are) in a safe and suitable condition according to their status and commensurate with expected usage. Includes cutting back of surface vegetation where it causes obstruction.

•       Provision and maintenance of the majority of bridges over natural watercourses.

•       Ensuring removal (as far as possible) of obstructions to free passage along the highway.

Main duties of landowners and occupiers

•       To provide and maintain gaps, gates and stiles in a useable and safe condition. To seek approval from the council (highway authority) for any new gates and stiles where there have previously been none (the council can authorise these on footpaths, bridleways, but not on byways) on land used or being used for agriculture or forestry and where there is a need to control the movement of animals). 25% of the cost of maintaining gates and stiles can be claimed from the Highway Authority – we will usually help by supplying materials instead, if requested. We’ll also help with costs or volunteer labour if land managers are willing to facilitate improvements such as installing gaps or gates instead of stiles. NB: British Standard 5709 applies!

•       To keep paths free of obstructions (known dangerous animals, fences temporary or permanent including electric fences, illegal ploughing and obstruction by crops, overhanging and ‘side growth’ vegetation.

Power of Parish Councils:

•       To make representations to the highway authority that a highway has been unlawfully stopped-up or obstructed. The authority must act unless satisfied that the representations are incorrect.

•       To hold for public inspection a copy of the definitive map for the parish or community, and copies of orders made to modify it.

•       To veto a proposal by a highway authority to apply to a magistrates’ court for an order stopping-up or diverting a highway.

•       To be consulted by a surveying authority on every application for a definitive map modification order.

•       To be consulted by a surveying authority before a definitive map modification order is made.

•       To object to a public path order or a definitive map modification order. A copy of every such order, both when made and when confirmed, must be served upon the council.

•       To undertake the maintenance of any footpath, bridleway or restricted byway.

•       To erect lighting on any footpath or bridleway.

•       To erect notices on footpaths and bridleways warning of local dangers.

•       To erect seats and shelters in, or on any land abutting on, any road within the parish.

•       To prosecute anyone who wilfully obstructs the free passage along any highway.

•       To prosecute an occupier who fails to ensure that crops do not inconvenience users of footpaths, bridleways and unmetalled carriageways.

•       To prosecute if a footpath or bridleway has been lawfully ploughed or disturbed, but not restored, or if any highway has been unlawfully ploughed or disturbed.

•       To insist to the highway authority that a particular footpath, bridleway, restricted byway or byway should be signposted where it meets a metalled road.

•       To signpost and waymark footpaths, bridleways, restricted byways and byways on behalf of, and with the consent of, the highway authority.

•       To create new highways by agreement with the landowner over land in their own and adjoining parishes or communities.

Volunteering

There are probably people interested in volunteering that may not be physically able to join in with the working groups but could still assist in other ways. Anyone interested in getting involved should make contact with us.

Those in attendance were then asked to work together in roundtable groups to choose one question to direct to Richard Broadbent.

Questions:

• Where do we stand in terms of the Parish Council carrying out maintenance on a footpath or RoW after it had already asked the landowner who would not carry out the work? Answer: If you want to do the work on behalf of WC we would assess it. PC’s are usually covered by their own parish insurance. If you have resistance with a landowner best to speak to us first before moving forward.
• What rights do residents living near a RoW have when there are proposals to increase the use of it? Answer: It would depend on who was promoting the increased use. If it was Wiltshire Council (WC) we try to consult with the local people to get them on side. Sometimes developers can move ahead with plans and can cause some difficult situations. It needs handling sensitively. We cannot stop people promoting what we are not aware of. Come and talk to us. A lot of what WC is about is delivering local aspirations.
• What legal status do permissive paths have and is that likely to change? Answer: They have no legal status. There are schemes where landowners can receive payments for access, those agreements are usually time limited and so interesting to see what will happen when those time limits expire if the landowners change their mind. We ask that they are put on the GPS mapping system so people can go online to look at them. PC’s are better placed than we are as they are more local to the action.
• Some paths are overgrown, from lack of use or lack of maintenance. Does every PC have a RoW councillor nominated? Answer: Not all do.
• There are lots of paths on Ordinance Survey maps not known by many people, is there a way to make them more known on local maps? In Sedgehill and Semeley I am the RoW representative, is there a simple way that we can legally get a number of small deviations changed that suit the local community? Answer: No there is no simple way to rationalise a modern network, you would need a legal diversion order. Each order may go to public enquiry. In a way it may be better to tackle them piecemeal then you will get some of what you want. We keep an online RoW map on the website, it is a working document. Every time there is a change to a RoW in a parish we will send an edited map to the parish. If you need paper copies we can produce them.
• What is your definition of a dangerous animal in signage? Answer: Livestock or horses. Generally speaking, farmers keep more breeds of livestock and dogs are seen as a threat, so the cattle may attack if under threat. Our advice is to let the dog go and it will find its way to you.
• Best place to go for advice. Answer: Natural England website and our WC web pages, the recreation section has all the RoW information. We have an inbox, and you can report issues on the My Wiltshire app. Landowner identity is difficulty due to the FoI act.
• Disabled access, what is happening with that? Answer: Wherever possible we are looking to improve the RoW network. Making changes where we can. There are places that things like styles are historic on the map and the landowner is not obliged to change that to a gate. There are all sorts of accessories which can be considered to access routes.

Thank you. If further questions, please send to Karen to collate and send on to Richard Broadbent.

Action: The CEM will circulate the full presentation slides to Parish Councils.