Access to Open Country and Common Land in England
Trevor Hardy
The Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW) Act 2000 grants a general right of access to the public to 'access land' for the purpose of open-air recreation.
'Access land' means land mapped as open country comprising mountain, moor, heath and down for which a summary of the four habitats follows:
- Mountain: all land over 600 metres above sea level and other upland areas comprising rugged and steep land, crag, scree, fell or other bare rock and associated rough vegetation.
- Moor: land of an open character with some natural vegetation such as mires (including blanket bog), rough unimproved acid grassland and upland calcareous grassland.
- Heath: land of an open character usually comprising natural ericaceous dwarf shrubs such as heathers, gorse, bilberry, unimproved grassland and bracken.
- Down: land comprising some semi-natural grassland in areas of chalk and limestone with an open landscape.
Access rights do not apply to agriculturally improved or semi-improved grassland, particularly in-bye land.
Subsequent to the enactment of the CROW Act maps of open country, including registered common land, have been prepared using an agreed standard methodology and made available for comment and appeal on a sequential regional basis throughout England. Areas of Open Access are now recorded on the latest issue of the Ordnance Survey 1:25000 'Explorer' maps.
Open Access provisions came into being from September 2004 in the south of England and were finally established in the north of England (especially Northumberland) on 28 May 2005.
In Northumberland most of the Access Land lies within the Northumberland National Park and Kielder Forest, in addition to some of the higher ground of the Fell sandstone ridge north of Rothbury and east of Wooler. These access arrangements are applicable to access on foot, but cycling, horse riding and camping are not included.
A right to walk dogs is included but, between 1 March and 31 July or at any time near livestock, dogs are allowed only if they are on a fixed lead no more than two metres long. This is designed to reduce as far as possible any disturbance to livestock or ground nesting birds during the breeding season.
Ministry of Defence land subject to military byelaws is excluded from these access arrangements. The existing rights of way network is not changed.
The CROW Act does not provide for access to beaches and the foreshore but it does give the Secretary of State powers to extend the statutory right of access to all or part of the foreshore and land adjacent to it. Parliament will be required to approve this extension, which has been recommended by the Countryside Agency.
Will it make any difference in Northumberland? We shall have to wait and see.
City and County
August 2005
