Conclusions and recommendations
1. The Countryside Agency met its Public Service
Agreement target for all designated right to roam land to be made
accessible to the public by 2005.
The public now have the opportunity to enjoy some 865,000 hectares
of land across England.
2. Until Natural England completes its first
Annual Report on open access in summer 2007, there is little information
available to determine how many people have exercised their right
to roam. There have however been a number
of difficulties in finding information and getting to many of
these areas of land, which need to be tackled if people are not
to be deterred.
a) The Countryside Agency has relied on its
website to convey information on access land, but some people
may not have ready access to the internet. Other sources of
information are important and the Agency's successor, Natural
England, has committed to providing leaflets suggesting walks
etc in Tourist Information Centres by June 2007. As staff in some
of the Centres visited by the National Audit Office were unaware
of the right to roam, however, the leaflets should be supported
by guidance or training on how to deal with any queries from the
public.
b) Users have found the Countryside access
website confusing and difficult to use. Natural England should
improve usability, drawing on the practices of leading government
and commercial websites. For example, information could be joined
up with that from other sources, and suggested walking routes
and destinations could be provided to help people plan days out
from a single website.
c) There is no telephone helpline aimed primarily
at those wishing to exercise their right to roam. The advertised
helpline is in practice aimed at landowners. Natural England should
consider providing a telephone helpline to provide people wanting
to walk in a particular area with the relevant access information.
d) Only a fifth of access sites visited by
the National Audit Office were accessible by public transport.
Where there are public transport links to access land Natural
England should include the details and timetables, or links to
this information, on the Countryside access website. The Agency
should also work with local authorities to identify possible solutions,
for example whether weekend bus services can be diverted past
open access land at peak recreational times.
e) Information on temporary restrictions to
a particular area of access land can be difficult to find
on the website. Pending improvements in the format of the
website, Natural England should provide guidance to Tourist Information
Centres on how to check for local restrictions in order to notify
walkers accordingly. Landowners could be encouraged to put up
suitable signage on site. Where access land is likely to face
temporary restrictions at broadly the same time each year, signage
should carry details of times when restrictions are likely to
occur and a contact number to enable walkers to clarify any concerns.
f) Existing advice to dog walkers is confusing.
Natural England should use the Countryside
access website and leaflets to promote clearly the message that
dogs are allowed on access land without leads unless there are
signs on the ground to the contrary.
3. Encouraging people to walk across the countryside
could increase the risk of adverse environmental impacts, such
as erosion. As part
of its annual review, Natural England should develop clear benchmarks
to measure the existing environmental status and condition of
an area in order to detect any subsequent deterioration, and develop
an action plan, in discussion with key land managers, which could
if necessary be invoked at short notice to prevent further damage.
4. Greater access to the countryside could
increase the risk of inadvertent transmission of infectious animal
diseases. The Department's existing contingency
plans for animal disease outbreaks should take account of risks
associated with greater access and include suitable plans for
imposing emergency restrictions on access land. The contingency
plans should include methods for communicating changes in the
status of access land to the public, landowners and access authorities
effectively and quickly.
5. The Agency's budget for the Access Management
Grant Scheme had been cut by two thirds in 2006-07 to £400,000.
The scheme funds the provision of signage on access land and any
remedial works required to improve the safety of walkers. Natural
England should prioritise where appropriate grant applications
which help ensure public safety and note in its Annual Report
any increase in access restrictions due to unsafe areas awaiting
funding for remedial works.
6. A failure to scope, plan and estimate the
costs of the project adequately led to the project costing almost
twice the Agency's December 2000 estimate of £28 million
(Agency outturn of £52.6 million).
The scale of overrun impacted adversely on the delivery of other
Agency programmes. For future projects Natural England should
put in place:
- scoping processes including
risk and sensitivity analysis covering a range of outcomes and
timescales;
- robust piloting within the project timetable
to enable early identification and resolution of potential problems;
and
- regular senior management monitoring of costs
and forecast outturn and delivery against schedule with the forward
implications of delays and overruns on Natural England's broader
programmes clearly identified.
7. The mapping contract was open ended and
based on day rate costs, allowing the costs to rise to over three
times the original contract value.
In letting future contracts Natural England should use good practice
disseminated by the Office of Government Commerce to procure the
best value contract; in particular it should:
- avoid open-ended and day rate
contracts where possible;
- have understanding of the work required before
letting the contract to avoid changing the scope at a later stage;
and
- closely monitor the work undertaken by contractors
and the costs of contracts to ensure that they continue to provide
value for money.
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