HL Deb 27 February 2002 vol 631 cc236-7WA
Lord Greaves

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the Countryside Agency website showing the provisional maps of access land under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 should be improved to assist the process of locating and navigating between local areas and sites. [HL2813]

Lord Whitty

During the first two weeks of consultation on draft maps in the South East and lower North West mapping regions, the Countryside Agency's website received nearly 2 million hits. This high level of interest initially led to some visitors to the website experiencing delays in navigating the site. In response to the high level of demand, the agency has carried out improvements which have increased the ease and speed by which visitors can search and view the reduced scale maps of open country and registered common land.

It appears that difficulties arise in navigating between local sites reached via the full England map but that these problems do not occur if the "search" facility is used—and the agency is investigating the cause with a view to rectifying the problem.