HC Deb 16 July 2003 vol 409 cc43-4WS
The Minister for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality (Alun Michael)

I will shortly announce which areas the Government will include in the first designation order under section 118B of the Highways Act 1980 to enable highway authorities to make orders to close or divert rights of way to prevent crime.

I shall write to each of the 15 authorities who applied for designation letting them know whether their applications have been successful and inviting those who have not been successful to provide more evidence. Defra will issue a press release to coincide with this and I will write to those MPs whose constituencies are directed affected to let them know what has been decided.

The legislation provides the Secretary of State with discretion to designate areas for the purposes of preventing or reducing crime that would otherwise disrupt the life of the community. Local highway authorities are then able to make orders to close or divert individual rights of way that are affected by high levels of crime.

The guidance that Defra issued to local authorities in February this year (Circular 1/2003) stated that whilst all applications for designation would be considered, the Government generally believed that a primary consideration must be that highway authorities were able to demonstrate that: there are rights of way in the area in question that are demonstrable causes of a persistent crime problem; and the realistic alternative options to tackle the causes of problems have been examined, prior to the application being made.

In reaching decisions, we have considered, in consultation with the Home Office, whether these two tests have been met.

The quality and quantity of information accompanying applications varied considerably. I plan to include in the designation order those areas for which the applications generally reflected the requirements of the guidance and where the authority provided evidence of a link between the crime which is occurring and the right of way, such as a statement by the police or Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, backed up by statistics wherever possible.

Applications which do not include the information set out in the guidance and do not contain sufficient evidence of a link will be deferred. Decisions on these will be deferred until October to enable authorities to provide additional information over the summer to support their applications. We will be making contact with each of these authorities individually to tell them what additional information is needed. One or two of those who are now being deferred were invited to submit additional information or evidence but failed to do so and I hope that such invitations will then be taken seriously in the future.

The designation order will be subject to the negative resolution procedure and will be laid in August so that authorities can begin to use their new powers as soon as possible.

It remains our view that, in general, rights of way do not cause or facilitate crime, but that we need to act vigorously where there is a connection. Their existence is frustrating attempts to deal with serious crime the Government will give local authorities the power to tackle.