The Draft Deregulation Bill, currently being considered by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, contains proposals aimed at improving the procedures for recording historic (pre-1949) public rights of way and amending their routes where necessary.
However, the proposals do not cover all aspects where public rights of way may be claimed by users and the NFU would welcome some additional measures included to reduce the burden on farmers and make the system fairer. The NFU has raised the following suggestions in our response to the Joint Committee:
- A presumption against routing claimed rights of way through farmyards and other areas - on the grounds of safety, security and nuisance,
- A set period after use has ceased that an application can be made to register a right of way based on 20 years of use,
- An improvement in the quality of evidence to justify claims for a right of way,
- Enable structures (e.g. gates) to be placed on rights of way on the grounds of security, e.g. to prevent vehicular access on a footpath,
- Reasonable limits on fees charged on applications for Public Path Orders.
Some of these measures will primary legislative change within a Deregulation Bill whilst others may be able to be incorporated into secondary legislation, or statutory guidance. The NFU is continuing to play an active role in rights of way reform as part of the working group in order to find a shared view of the best way forwards. On the 28 October representatives of users, land managers, highways authorities from the group appeared before the Joint Committee to answer questions from Lords and MPs on the Draft Bill. You can watch they’re evidence session on parliamentlive.tv.