The act included amendments to existing rights of way legislation to streamline the system for looking at new rights of way applications. The land owner will be given greater say in what routes new rights of ways are added on. The key area of improvement in the process is with the determining of applications. The Local Authority will now have the power to divert a route at application stage should the route not be suitable. i.e. it runs through property or working yards where there is a significant risk. Other changes include restrictions on how long applications are at each stage, gating of rights of way and the introduction of a basic evidence test. Many of the changes are focused on ‘historic rights of way’, routes based on documentary evidence from before 1949.
The expected impact for our members is a reduction in the time, confusion and stress historic claims applicatons have.