§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Whitty on 22 May 2000 (WA 44), what methodologies they have put in place to measure the effect of open access on the environment and on those who earn their living from the land. [HL1565]
§ Lord WhittyThe Countryside Agency has recently advertised in theEuropean Journal for expressions of interest in a contract to monitor the benefits and impacts of access on the way people use the countryside for recreation, rural economies (and the activities that contribute to them) and the environment.
In addition, English Nature (EN) set up a workshop earlier this year in which leading authorities on access-related disturbance have identified core priorities for further research and monitoring. The Access Scientific Research and Monitoring Group, comprising representatives from EN, the agency, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Countryside Council for Wales, the Game Conservancy Trust and others, are co-ordinating research and monitoring priorities identified in the workshop. The group has already commissioned work on impacts on woodlarks and nightjars and on rare reptiles and is now considering project proposals for impacts on a wide range of other species associated with access land.
The department and other bodies with functions under Part I of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 will have regard to the findings of these studies in implementing the provisions of the Act.