Your favourite walk may have an expiry date
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Monday, April 17, 2023
Optimism, COVID-19, Rights, Country Land and Business Association, Research, Government, Labour, Recreation, Rural area, Climate change, Business association, Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, Work, Disagreement, Association, Map, CROW, Budget, Clement, The Ramblers, Legislation, Road, Hunting
Each path is recorded and maintained by local authorities across the UK to ensure they remain open, unobstructed and free for all to use.
Key Points:
- Each path is recorded and maintained by local authorities across the UK to ensure they remain open, unobstructed and free for all to use.
- Groups campaigning for greater public access to the countryside have been trying to find and register these paths so they can be used in perpetuity.
- Any paths which were not officially recorded after this deadline would be lost to the public.
Demystifying the ‘definitive’ map
- All public rights of way in England and Wales are recorded in the definitive map and statement, which is the legal record maintained by local authorities.
- Definitive maps were first introduced in 1949 as part of a post-war planning boom.
- Despite the optimism of Clement Attlee’s Labour government, the task has proven to be complex and interminable for local authorities.
The path ahead
- While this feels like a loss for access campaigners, the five-year extension to the original 2026 deadline would appear to strike a compromise, at least from the government’s point of view.
- The government has cited COVID-19 as justification for the five-year delay, but the problem is more deep-rooted.
- Labour certainly thinks so – but before it can implement any new settlement, the party will have to win a general election.
- Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue.