§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have made generally known the need for people affected by Section 68 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 with regard to vehicular access across common land to apply by 4 July 2003 for a statutory easement under S.I. 2002/1711, and, if so, how this has been communicated; and [HL2692]
How people affected by S.I. 2002/1711 (vehicular access across common land) will be able to apply for an easement when the owner of that common land is unknown. [HL2693]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)Applications for statutory easements may be made after 4 July 2003 provided that relevant use of the access is continuing. In this context "relevant" means use in such a manner and for such a time that, had it not been an offence to drive on the land, a prescriptive right would have been acquired.
Where there is no known land owner, owners of premises are very unlikely to be faced with use of the access being prevented, or with having to pay a large sum of money to obtain a legal right of access. The Common Land Policy Statement 2002 proposed that future legislation should provide for unclaimed common land to be vested in a local authority or other suitable body. Should this happen, or should an owner come forward in the future, owners of premises would be able to apply under Section 68 as long as relevant use was continuing.
While some owners of premises could lose the right to apply because of the time limits contained in the regulations, we consider this unlikely to happen. In November 2002 we issued a non-statutory guidance note with advice on the purpose and operation of Statutory Instrument 2002/1711, including a detailed explanation on the time limits for the submission of applications. This has been circulated very widely. We also undertook three public consultations and issued press releases when the Statutory Instrument was laid before Parliament and when it came into force. The new procedures have also been the subject of a number of articles in both national and local media.