§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what recent steps the Department has taken to open(a) more footpaths in the countryside and (b) more private land to the public; [69411]
(2) what (a) discussions the Department has had with private landowners nd (b) steps it has taken to encourage private landowners to open their land to the public. [69412]
§ Alun MichaelThe Department recently consulted on draft guidance to local highway authorities in relation to the requirement in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 to prepare and review rights of way
137Wimprovement plans. Once the relevant provisions are in force, later this year, local highway authorities will be required to take a strategic look at how the local network of rights of way takes into account the needs of the public and to prepare a statement of the action that they propose to take to improve the network. including creating new rights of way where they are shown to be needed.
In January this year we issued a consultation paper on proposals for regulations under section 16 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 which enables landowners voluntarily to give people a statutory right of access to their land. The consultation ended on 15 April and we are presently considering the responses from landowners and others. The Department is also working closely with the Forestry Commission which, earlier this year, arranged a number of seminars for private woodland owners on the provision of access under section 16. In addition, private landowners are encouraged to allow permissive public access under DEFRA's agri-environment schemes. The provisions are currently the subject of a public consultation that began on 8 July and will end on 27 September 2002.
§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps the Government have taken to improve safety on public footpaths and other rights of way that are(a) poorly lit, (b) in desolate areas and (c) in areas where crime is above average. [69410]
§ Alun MichaelI recently published draft guidance arising from rights of way provisions in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. The draft guidance encourages local highway authorities to take positive management measures, such as consideration of the use of lighting and schemes to encourage informal surveillance to counter problems of criminal activity on public rights of way.
Where rights of way are facilitating high levels of crime in built up areas the provisions that are covered in the guidance will enable such rights of way to be diverted or extinguished.
§ Paddy TippingTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the development of a National Access Database; what funding she has made to the Countryside Agency to fund a feasibility study into a national access database; and when the feasibility study will be published. [70041]
§ Alun MichaelThe Government announced the plan to establish a National Access Database in the Rural White Paper "Our countryside: the future a fair deal for rural England" in November 2000. The Countryside Agency has commissioned consultants to look at the feasibility of establishing such a database. The feasibility study is being funded from within the Agency's annual grant in aid settlement. The Agency will publish a research note in September 2002 and use the findings of the study to make recommendations on how the project should proceed.