APPENDIX 12
Memorandum submitted by The Ramblers'
Association
1. The Ramblers' Association (RA) is a voluntary
organization and registered charity founded in 1935. We have over
211,000 supporters consisting of more than 134,000 individual
members and 77,000 members of affiliated clubs, societies and
parish councils. Our four core aims are to promote walking, to
protect public rights of way, to campaign for access to open country
and to defend the beauty of the countryside.
2. In relation to this inquiry, the RA's
concern is access to the countryside, and the provision of information,
which allows the public to access the countryside.
PATHS AND
ACCESS TO
THE COUNTRYSIDE
ARE IMPORTANT
TO TOURISM
3. Walkers generate billions of pounds of
business for rural areas. In 1998, over 20 per cent of visitors
to the countryside pursued activities such as walking, field study
and cycling. These totalled 26 million tourist trips generating
spending of £2.7 billion (Foot and Mouth Disease: the
state of the English Countryside, Countryside Agency, 2001).
In Wales alone, £77 million and 4,250 jobs are generated
by walking and mountaineering in rural Wales (The Economic
Value of Walking in Rural Wales, Professor Peter Midmore of
the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 2000).
4. During the Foot-and-Mouth disease crisis,
the estimated national revenue loss was almost £5 billion
(English Tourism Council). An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 jobs
in the tourism industry were lost (Foot and Mouth disease:
the state of the English countryside, Countryside Agency,
2001). In the Yorkshire region alone, the estimated loss to the
tourist industry between March and May 2001 was £34.8 million
and the report found that the closure of footpaths was the single
largest factor impacting on rural tourism (The Impact of Foot
and Mouth Disease on the Yorkshire and Humber Economy, ECOTEC
Research and Consulting Ltd).
PATHS AND
ACCESS BRING
OTHER BENEFITS
5. Open and well-maintained and promoted
rights of way and other access to the countryside are important.
According to an ICM research survey in February 2000, 77 per cent
of UK adults say they walk for pleasure at least once a month
and 62 per cent say that walking is their main form of exercise.
THE CONDITION
OF RIGHTS
OF WAY
6. In December 2001, the Countryside Agency
published the Rights of Way Condition Survey 2000, a detailed
survey of the state of public paths in England. The Agency launched
the findings on 11 December, commenting "England's 120,000
miles of rights of way are one of the country's great assets,
attracting welcome visitors and cash to the countryside, yet a
quarter of them aren't easy to use." The survey estimated
that £69 million was needed to get paths into the condition
required by law, and concluded that the £30 million invested
by the Countryside Agency, through grant schemes to local authorities
in the decade 1990-2000, had delivered only minor improvements.
THE BENEFITS
OF A
NATIONAL ACCESS
DATABASE
7. The Countryside Agency and DEFRA in England;
and, in Wales, the Countryside Council for Wales, the Wales Tourist
Board, and the Forestry Commission, are investigating the feasibility
of creating, one each for England and Wales, a National Access
Database which will contain information on all types of access,
including public rights of way, access land (as defined in Part
I of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000), and other land
covered by access agreements and formal access arrangements.
8. The RA believes a National Access Database
would help people wishing to go for a walk in the countryside
to find accurate and up-to-date information on where they have
a right of access. The Database should be made easily accessible
to the public by means of a website.
9. We believe that local highway authorities
should be required to maintain their definitive maps of public
rights of way on GIS systems compatible with the National Access
Database, so the information could be shared. This would be particularly
valuable when paths are diverted and as more rights of way were
added to the definitive map as part of the Government's "Discovering
Lost Ways" project. Similarly, the Countryside Agency and
the Countryside Council for Wales should be required to maintain
the conclusive maps of access land in a likewise compatible form.
10. In the event of a future outbreak of
Foot-and-Mouth disease, which necessitated the closure of rights
of way close to the infection, a National Access Database would
help with the management and distribution of information on access
to the countryside.
THE GOVERNMENT'S
ROLE
11. Excellent legislation already exists
to protect the rights of way network, and the Government's public
service agreement on access to the countryside is very welcome.
However, as explained in paragraph 6, many rights of way do not
meet the condition required by law. The Government has a significant
role to play in helping local authorities to meet their statutory
duties on rights of way. Having a quarter of paths difficult or
impossible to use is a disincentive to many people who enjoy walking
in the countryside.
12. The Government's support for a National
Access Database, in the form of funding and management of the
database, would bring benefits to tourism.
7 October 2002
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