| The Countryside Agency have risked angering the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions by clearly stating their disapproval of the current Bill due for its second reading on March 20th.This fully substantiates access users charges that the DETR have traded off rights of way to pacify landowners for open access legislation. We can only pray that Labour will listen, if not to the millions of people who use rights of way, then to the Countryside Agency, the government’s own advisors on countryside issues. In a report presented at the Agency meeting held on March 9th, the Agency states “our general conclusion is that the rights of way proposals, whilst good in parts, are unbalanced as they currently stand. The main problem is that proposals which will guarantee specific improvements in the network are few, compared with several proposals which, taken together, could lead to some diminution of it.” “Without the assurance of sufficient research into, and recording of rights of way there would be no security against the effective extinguishment of large numbers of undiscovered ‘higher’ rights in some places.” ” some of our proposals seem to have been adapted in ways that make them less helpfulÖ our advice that local authorities should determine requests for changes to the network within a specified time limit has emerged as a proposal simply to give those with an interest in land a formal right to apply for closures and diversions…” “Allied to this is a concern that the overall effect will be to add to the administrative burden of already underfunded rights of way departments at a time when some of them are also likely to come under pressure to deal with the effects of access to open country. The DETR proposed that land managers and the public should have a statutory right to apply for the making of public path orders to divert or close rights of way. Despite more than half of respondents opposing this, the DETR believe it is important to the overall balance of the package. We oppose this clause as drafted. It introduces more complexity into the existing procedures, it is biased towards the interests of land managers and it does not achieve our original intentions.” “The Governmentís consultation paper proposed measures to stop up or divert public paths for crime prevention reasons, anywhere in England and Wales. This was opposed by 70% of respondents. We also were concerned about the potential to abuse the powers. ” “The DETRs economic appraisal of rights of way work (see above) indicates that a further £50 million per year is required for highway authorities to fulfil existing duties, and a further £60-70 million for new duties included in the Bill. This information has been used in the Regulatory Impact Assessment which accompanied the Bill presented to Parliament. If extra money is allocated we would want assurance that it would be allocated to rights of way work.” “The DETR state that the Local Government Act 1999 includes a range of powers of intervention by the Secretary of State for use when local authorities fail to comply with the requirements of the Act. The Government believe that the development of ROW performance indicators and regular auditing of their new Performance Plans within the best value framework will offer more incentives for under performing authorities to undertake their duties. However, it is difficult to see that this will have any effect and to some extent it will depend on how much local taxpayer/service user support there is for improving the service currently provided.” “We are also disappointed that the Government has dismissed our recommendation to appoint a rights of way regulator, or ombudsman.” At last we are not the only ones to say that this Bill is biased towards landowners and unfair to access users. Furthermore our fundamental belief that this Bill will not improve access opportunities but remove them forever. For further information a condensed version can be viewed at www.rightsofway.org.uk or the full version can be seen at Countryside Agency web site at www.countryside.gov.uk/who/f_meet.htm |
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