Local Access Forums
Recommendation of the Select Committee
4. We recommend that the Department
amend the statutory guidance on local access forums to include
procedures covering the interviewing and selection of forum members
(paragraph 24).
Government and Agency response
Local access forums will act as independent advisory
bodies with no executive functions. We agree that it is important
that forums, which are not part of local government, are independent
of their appointing authority. To reinforce their independence
and to ensure that they have a wideranging and balanced
membership, we have taken the following steps:
· restricted
local authority membership. The Local Access Forums (England)
Regulations 2002 limit the number of members of a district or
county council or National Park Authority who may be appointed
to a forum for any part of that authority's area to two for a
forum of up to sixteen members and three for a forum of seventeen
or more members;
· advised
against the appointment of certain local authority employees.
The Government's circular letter to all appointing authorities,
issued on 26 July 2002, urged authorities to avoid appointing
any local authority employee who had responsibilities for access
or rights of way management because there might be a potential
conflict of interest;
· required
authorities to advertise widely. Vacancies must be advertised
in local or regional newspapers, and on appointing authorities'
websites if they have them. Authorities are also required to consult
whichever bodies or individuals they consider appropriate in order,
for example, to invite nominations for forum membership. The circular
letter also suggested that authorities might wish to supplement
the requirements of the regulations by advertising vacancies more
widely;
· required
a balanced membership. Authorities must ensure a reasonable balance
on each local access forum between the number of members representing
the interests of users of the new right of access to open country
and users of local rights of way and those representing the interests
of owners and occupiers of access land or land crossed by local
rights of way. The circular letter encouraged each authority to
consider carefully what other specific interests are relevant
to their own area and how members representative of those interests
might bring a fresh perspective to the work of the forum. The
regulations require that each local access forum should have a
minimum of ten members and a maximum of twenty-two; and
· required
declarations of personal interest. Forum members must disclose
any personal interests in a matter to be discussed at a forum
meeting. Failure to do so can be grounds for being removed from
the forum.
The Government is not aware of any general suggestions
that those local highway authorities, or National Park authorities,
which have already established forums in England, have acted other
than in accordance with the regulations and the Government's guidance.
We understand that the Ramblers' Association accepts that the
appointment procedures of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and
Oxfordshire County Council, which they raised with the Sub-Committee,
have complied with both. [The Association is nonetheless concerned
that members of the authorities who may serve on the forums are
conducting selection interviews.]
The Government has left individual appointing authorities
free to decide the process of appointing members to a forum because
we think them best able to judge what is suitable in their circumstances.
We would expect authorities to act within the statutory framework
established by the Act and the regulations, and also to bear in
mind the need for fairness, transparency, and compliance with
policies on social inclusion and diversity. We are not aware of
these requirements being breached: the practice adopted in the
Yorkshire Dales and Oxfordshire is not dissimilar to central government
procedures, where Ministers with most interest in a subject generally
make the appointments to advisory bodies. The number of members
of appointing authorities with sufficient knowledge and interest
in access issues to conduct interviews is likely to be limited.
We have asked the Ramblers' Association
to let us know of future cases where they have criticisms of appointment
procedures. While the Government does not have any current plans
to amend the guidance to appointing authorities, we would be prepared
to revise the guidance if we became aware of justified concerns
about the way that members have been appointed. In addition, the
Government and the Agency will monitor how the local access forums
work in practice
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