House of Commons - Public Accounts - Thirty-Second Report

Select Committee on Public Accounts Thirty-Second Report

1 Encouraging the public to use the right to roam across the countryside

1. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 introduced the public's 'right to roam' across specific areas of countryside without having to keep to existing footpaths. By the end of October 2005, the Countryside Agency had opened up 855,000 hectares of mountains, moors, heaths, downs and registered common land for the public to walk across. The National Audit Office had confirmed that 99% of this land was open to walkers without dogs. The land now open to the public (referred to as access land) includes many areas of beautiful countryside, such as the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, Henroost in Dartmoor and the Dragon's Back hills in the Peak District. Details of these and other access lands are available at the website www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk. Lowland areas, however, have not been opened up to the public to the same extent. In practice, 77% of the access land is in the North of England and less than 3% is in South East England—see figure 1.[2]

Figure 1: A total of 865,000 hectares of land is newly accessible across England

2. There was a lack of reliable data on the extent to which people had exercised their 'right to roam' at the time of the Committee's hearing in November 2006. The Countryside Agency conducted a survey in 2005 which estimated that there had been 22.1 million visits to access land in 2005. Some data will, however, pre-date the introduction of the new right, and clear data on take up will not emerge until the results of the 2006 survey are analysed. The Chief Executive of Natural England (which took over responsibility for access land from the Countryside Agency in October 2006) confirmed that her Agency planned to carry out annual surveys and to produce an Annual Report detailing the findings. The first of these Annual Reports would be published in summer 2007.[3]

3. The Department was committed to giving everyone the opportunity to exercise their right to walk in the countryside. Encouraging the public, particularly those from inner cities or other metropolitan areas to visit access land depends to some extent upon sites being accessible by public transport. Around 20% of the sites visited by the National Audit Office were accessible by public transport, but increasing the proportion typically depended upon diverting existing bus routes, where such changes would be economically viable. Where public transport could be used to access sites, such as in the Peak District National Park, the information was not readily available on the right to roam website.[4]

4. There was no single source of information from which members of the public could obtain all they needed to know on areas of access land. Whilst Ordnance Survey produced maps showing all access land within six months of the areas opening to the public, the maps could not provide up to date information on any temporary restrictions in place on where to walk, or whether dogs were not allowed. The key source of up to date advice on restrictions was from Natural England's right to roam website (www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk.). When the National Audit Office first tested the website in November 2005, the website maps were unclear, making it difficult to identify places in 21 out of 58 searches carried out (36%). Nor did the website offer suggested walks or recommended areas to visit; instead the public were left to plan a walk by matching up the information on the website with the maps produced by Ordnance Survey.[5] The quality of the maps had improved by April 2006, although it remained difficult to search for particular places (see figure 2).

5. Anyone visiting an area away from home or not having access to a computer requires alternative sources of information on access land and on any restrictions in place. A principal source of information was Tourist Information Centres, and 17 out of 23 centres visited by the National Audit Office held some information on where to walk. Natural England had commenced a survey to establish what materials (such as leaflets) would be most helpful for walkers and planned to have these available in Tourist Information Centres by June 2007. Some leaflets, such as the Countryside Code leaflet, had erroneously advertised a telephone helpline. The helpline had originally been set up for landowners to contact the Countryside Agency with queries or to allow landowners to notify the Agency of temporary restrictions. The staff operating the helpline did not have the training or resources to deal with queries from the public.[6]

Figure 2: In a third of cases tested by the National Audit Office it was difficult to find sites using the website's search function



© Parliamentary copyright 2007	Prepared 21 June 2007