CROW Map Review project
Under The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CROW), the right of access has now commenced across England. Conclusive maps of England outside of inner London have been produced to show all registered common land and open country.
Deferment of work on the first statutory review of the maps of Open Country and Registered Common Land
Defra has recently announced the decision by Richard Benyon (Minister for Natural Environment and Fisheries), to defer all work on the first statutory review of the above maps under Section 10 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 for two years. This decision will be reviewed in August or September 2012. Until that time, Natural England is not in a position to advise on the timetable for the first review.
In a letter sent to certain key stakeholder organisations, Defra indicated that they ‘envisage that it will be necessary in due course to make regulations, under section 10(3) of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, to extend the maximum period set out in section 10(2)(a) after which the first review must be undertaken’.
Given that we had previously suggested to some landowners and other stakeholders that the first review would be an opportunity to potentially resolve various issues with the existing conclusive maps, we realise that this may be frustrating for some. However, the deferment reflects the current economic situation and the urgent requirement to dramatically reduce non-essential public spending. In the meantime, we can only suggest that, if there are any problems on access land, we will be able to discuss options for access restrictions or other management measures.
Statutory Section 4 maps
Natural England has prepared maps of all open country and registered common land in England. This was a statutory duty under Section 4 of The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. View these maps
.
You can also view all of the statutory map information for each mapping area; click one of the area links in Related articles above.
CROW Mapping FAQ's
For further information on how the we mapped CROW land under Section 4 please click here: (36kb)
.
For definitions of CROW access land, please click here: (37kb).
