APPENDIX 5
Memorandum submitted by the Institute
of Public Rights of Way Officers (R4)
INTRODUCTION
1. The Institute is the leading professional
body representing those who are responsible for the management
of public rights of way. It is also likely to represent many of
those who will be concerned with the implementation by access
authorities in particular of the provisions contained in Part
I of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
2. The Institute welcomes the thoroughness
with which the Department is implementing Parts I and II of the
Act, and in general has no concerns about the timetable. However
it wishes to draw the committee's attention to one matter of timing,
and also to the more general issue of funding for the implementation
of the Act by local authorities.
SECTIONS 53 TO
56
3. Sections 53 to 56 of the Act provide
for the extinguishment of rights of way not recorded on the definitive
map and statement at the "cut-off date" (1 January 2026
or such date up to five years later as may be prescribed by regulations).
Estimates of the number of rights of way which could be affected
by this provision vary, but all are agreed that the number runs
into tens of thousands in England alone (the issue applies also
to Wales).
4. Identifying these ways through research
and then seeking to have them recorded on definitive maps will
be a major task. Whatever the efforts of volunteers and surveying
authorities, and the assistance that may be provided by the Countryside
Agency's Lost Ways Project, there is no certainty that all relevant
rights will be recorded by 1 January 2026.
5. Section 56(2)(b) gives the Secretary
of State power to make regulations containing transitional provisions
the effect of which would be that any orders or applications in
the system at the cut-off date would be protected and allowed
to continue to completion of the process.
6. The Institute understands that the Department
has indicated that it intends to make such regulations. However
it is not aware than any formal commitment on the matter has been
made by the Secretary of State or on her behalf. The Institute
regards the making of such regulations as an essential part of
the process of recording these rights. It is concerned that the
Department's timetable for implementation of Part II has the implementation
of sections 53 to 56 at the end of its list, meaning that it is
probable that no regulations will be made until 2005.
7. The Institute considers that regulations
under section 56(2)(b) to provide protection for orders and applications
in the system could be made much sooner without interfering with
the timetable for implementation of the remainder of Part II,
and without the need to implement other aspects of sections 53
to 56 any sooner.
8. The Institute therefore asks the Committee
to consider this matter.
FUNDING FOR
LOCAL AUTHORITY
IMPLEMENTATION
9. The Minister wrote to local highway authorities
in September 2001 stating that significant funds had been allocated
for implementation of Part II, and asking authorities to put those
funds to good use in providing a thriving rights of way network.
However the Department failed to identify the exact allocation
for each authority. This presented serious problems for those
of the Institute's members responsible for rights of way management
in local authorities. When they sought, in internal discussions,
to have the promised additional funds added to their budgets they
often failed because no amount had been specified.
10. The Institute understands that neither
the government nor the Local Government Association favour "ring-fencing"
of funds such as this allocation. However it believes that it
should be possible for the government to be able to identify for
each authority the effect of adding a sum to the total for all
authorities. It appears to the Institute that it is simply a matter
of running the calculation for each authority using the formula
that divides the total, first for the total before the extra is
added, and second for the total after the extra is added, and
then subtracting the first from the second.
11. It is now too late for this calculation
to be of any use for the current financial year, but it could
be of some value for the next and subsequent years, and the Institute
asks the Committee to consider this matter.
12. If any extra funds that are to be made
available to local authorities to act as access authorities under
Part I of the Act are to be allocated in the same way, then the
Institute can foresee similar problems arising.
Institute of Public Rights of Way Officers
30 January 2003
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