Contact: Merrick Denton-Thompson, ext 6826

1. Summary

1.1 Hampshire County Council is currently running a national access pilot project, the IADP, which is developing innovative approaches for encouraging access to the countryside.

1.2 In parallel with this the CROW Act sets out in primary legislation new measures to improve access to the countryside. As a result of the Act the County Council has new obligations and new resources to add to its existing regulatory functions and discretionary activities in support of increasing access to the countryside.

1.3 The purpose of this report is to:

(i) introduce the County Council's IADP, which is one of a small number of National Pilots funded by the Countryside Agency;

(ii) explore opportunities emerging from the legislation and new access pilot initiatives, for the Countryside Service to expand its contribution to meeting the aims of the County Council's Corporate strategy; and

(iii) secure support from the Recreation and Heritage Policy and Revue Committee for the contents of this report.

2. The Corporate Strategy and the Countryside Service

2.1 The County Council has a national reputation for its approach to conserving the countryside and making it more accessible to local communities. Through ongoing development and review the Countryside Service offers access to over 11,000 acres of land across 82 sites. These include access to the coast, to rivers and canals, and to open countryside of downland, heathland and commons. The Countryside Service manages a dense network of 3,000 miles of public rights of way, and works to ensure that the legal record of these routes is accurate and kept up to date. However, what sets the Service apart from elsewhere in the country has been its approach to land management, which has balanced the needs of nature conservation with the interests of public access; a fully integrated service. Such integration allows the Service to cater for literally millions of visits to Hampshire's countryside each year while safeguarding the quality of that resource and contributing directly to the economy of the county.

2.2 Through this approach and infrastructure the Countryside Service is well positioned to underpin and develop its contribution to a number of key corporate objectives. Aside from the more obvious role in terms of environmental quality and access to facilities, the service contributes strongly in other areas. In particular, the service has a strong involvement with young people and contributing to the raising of educational standards. The Service welcomes 27,000 schoolchildren and hosts over 2,000 trainee, volunteer, or placement days each year on its sites. A wide range of age groups and abilities are catered for as part of extensive volunteer involvement across its activities, with many opportunities to meet the commitment to support `life-long learning'. From an economic development perspective the Service fulfils a key role, both in maintaining the quality of the environment and in providing opportunities to enjoy it. It also acts as an economic driver from a tourism and local economy perspective. A recent consultancy project on one of the Service's key sites pointed to an annual local economic impact of over £4 million.

2.3 There is a great opportunity to develop these initiatives within the context of the new Recreation and Heritage Department and this is being actively pursued as part of the Department's new objectives. Particular emphasis is being placed on providing opportunities for access and enjoyment of the countryside and looking for ways to engage as wide a cross section of the community as possible.

2.4 One of the key outcomes of the internal Best Value review of the Countryside Service, and associated work from MORI, was evidence of the value attached to this resource and the need to promote and market opportunities more effectively. This will be a key priority of the Recreation and Heritage Department.

2.5 In Hampshire there will be a special new emphasis on informal recreation in the countryside created by the two proposed new National Parks. The Countryside Service is well placed to work in partnership with the National Park Authorities to deliver the new agenda.

2.6 Today there are new imperatives driving the services of local government which impact upon the work of the Countryside Service and the management of access to the countryside generally:

(i) Market research and direct experience in towns and cities indicate that there is a failure to connect with young people and to meet their needs.

(ii) There is a new emphasis on healthy living and a need to devise innovative ways to develop healthy lifestyles.

(iii) The connection between a good environment (the `green lung') and a buoyant local economy.

(iv) Providing opportunities for enjoying the countryside, close to where people live and work, which reduces the need to travel.

2.7 The Executive Member for and the Director of Recreation and Heritage, along with the person appointed in June as Head of the Countryside Service, will review the service in light of these new and emerging issues. There will be a new emphasis given to the integration of all the services in the new department and building upon the innovative work taken forward by the Countryside Service in recent months. Particular emphasis will be given to utilising the work of the IADP in considering access opportunities as a mainstream element of the County Council's activities.

3. Integrated Access Demonstration Programme: A National Pilot

3.1 To test the new approaches to countryside access that will be required following the introduction of the CROW Act 2000, IADP was developed by the Countryside Agency.

3.2 The County Council successfully bid for Hampshire to be one of the few national pilots for the IADP, resulting in the recruitment of Ms Jo Hale in Oct 2000 just prior to the passing of the Act.

3.3 This three year pilot will consider an integrated approach to countryside access and will particularly concentrate on the links between urban communities and the countryside in south-east Hampshire. The programme will be delivered by a series of demonstration projects, with the outcomes and lessons learnt applied elsewhere within the county and disseminated nationally.

3.4 A range of projects have been developed by the programme, including:

(i) a project that aims to encourage young people from socially deprived areas into the countryside, addressing the issues raised by groundbreaking research conducted last year;

(ii) a sustainable integrated transport project involving new leisure bus services, infrastructure and information linking the countryside to the urban areas of Havant, Fareham and Portsmouth;

(iii) planning for new access as an integral part of the designs for new communities and working with local planning authorities to identify these opportunities;

(iv) producing a `blue print' for improving access on a large urban fringe estate that meets both the needs of the users and land managers; and

(v) a project that is working with local horse riders and other users to provide safe routes in the countryside away from busy roads and dangerous road crossings.

3.5 Whilst some funding is received from the Countryside Agency, a range of different funding mechanisms have been utilised to assist with the delivery of the projects. The programme relies on partnerships and is actively working with a number of departments within the County Council, for example Surveyor's, Planning and Social Services, as well as other local authorities and external organisations.

3.6 The work of the IADP will help guide the County Council in preparing for the implementation of some of the new obligations introduced by the CROW Act 2000.

4. Hampshire County Council's Response to the Countryside and Rights of Way Act

4.1 The County Council now has new responsibilities and opportunities for improving access arising out of the CROW Act 2000. New funding has been made available through the Standard Spending Assessment to enable the County Council to work towards fulfilling these new duties. Amongst these new responsibilities, the Act requires the County Council, as local highway authority, to establish a Local Access Forum. The duty of the Forum is to advise the County Council on the improvements of public access for the purposes of open-air recreation and the enjoyment of the area. Membership of the forum should be a balance of interests, principally between those of landowners/managers and those of recreational users of the land.

4.2 Regulations for Local Access Fora have been delayed and are still yet to be published. In the meantime the County Council will continue to convene the `Local Access Forum Working Group' to develop the ways the Local Access Forum will operate and to begin to set the agenda.

4.3 The County Council needs to commence work now towards meeting and delivering the requirements of the Act. It is therefore recommended to the Cabinet that the Local Access Forum considers the approach to be taken for improving Rights of Way. A suggested approach is that some analysis of use and provision is undertaken before a strategy for improvement is considered. Although the Rights of Way in Hampshire provide a comprehensive network to access the countryside, no statistical records exist giving details of actual use. It is estimated that, although many Rights of Way are well used, the majority have a low level of use and some are not used at all. This is hardly surprising, as the network reflects historic patterns of movement. The new obligation placed on the County Council to prepare Rights of Way improvement plans provides an opportunity to modernise the network, market the opportunities available and ensure that best use is made of Rights of Way in the county.

4.4 Subject to the views of the Local Access Forum, this will include preparing Countryside Access Plans for towns and cities, for links with public transport networks and the country parks. These plans will seek to:

(i) make it easy to access the countryside close to where people live;

(ii) change the nature of the network to increase the number of circuits of differing lengths and character (eg heritage trails, etc);

(iii) make the best use of local views and local character, areas of wildlife interest or areas and features of historic interest;

(iv) provide for people who are less mobile than others - of all ages;

(v) provide extra facilities for horse riders and cyclists;

(vi) provide new connections to enable people to walk or cycle to places as an alternative to the car;

(vii) assist the local economy by linking routes and circuits to shops, public houses and other retail outlets in support of tourism; and

(viii) focus on areas of need: social, economic and/or lack of provision.

4.5 There is some evidence that lack of knowledge about the network creates anxiety amongst potential users of Rights of Way. The County Council needs to explore ways of packaging and promoting a modernised network.

4.6 Although the Regulations and the formal framework are still awaited, there are numerous opportunities for all to enjoy the countryside. The priorities agreed by the Local Access Forum could be incorporated into the Strategic Land Management Plans as part of its new statutory obligations for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and for the remainder of the county, thereby providing the framework and links to other land management activities. Implementation of improvements can also be achieved through the planning of major development areas, the provision of Heritage Land (for tax purposes) and through Stewardship Agreements, grant aid and good will.

4.7 The County Council must also prepare itself for other impending changes arising from the CROW Act. The new draft Open Countryside Maps, which should have been published in June, have now been delayed until the autumn. The delay provides an opportunity for the County Council to learn lessons from what emerged with the publication of the maps in the south-east of England, which attracted over 7,000 responses. Land that will be included is unimproved grassland, covering downland, heathland and commons (of which there are about 300 in Hampshire). Outside of the New Forest the remaining heathland and downland is very fragmented, and collectively makes up approximately 5% of the surface area of the county.

4.8 The process of mapping land as open access is a sensitive issue. The recording of new access rights over private land requires careful management and thorough consultation. Whilst it is essentially the responsibility of the Countryside Agency to oversee this process, the County Council could play a valuable additional role towards raising the public's awareness of the process and the part that it can play.

4.9 One option may be for the County Council to help disseminate information to local communities and through local authority facilities. In addition, the County Council could help with the provision of information to those landowners directly affected, and provide advice on the process and an explanation of the controls and safeguards that have been incorporated in the legislation.

4.10 The County Council will be affected by this section of the CROW Act, both as landowner and highway authority. As landowner there will be additional administrative costs, as much of the Countryside estate is made up of downland and heathland. The County Council will need to respond on a site-by-site basis and there may well be long term issues concerning land management decisions. As highway authority, the County Council will be required to ensure that all Open Country Access land can be reached from the public highway. It will also be required to ensure that the regulations for Open Country are complied with, both by the owners of the land and by those who use the new rights of access. Issues that are likely to emerge include the control of dogs, the advertising of days when certain land will be closed to the public and control of public activities on open access land.

4.11 The prospect of land being mapped as `Open Access' has resulted in the ploughing of permanent grassland, and could lead to benign neglect where the loss of such grassland would be inevitable. Furthermore, the periodic review of Open Access maps is already blighting parts of the countryside, as landowners are reluctant to consider reverting from arable farming to permanent grazing in case their land is mapped as Open Country in the future.

4.12 It is not easy at this stage to predict all the implications of this part of the Act. As a consequence the County Council will need to keep this under review as the legislation matures.

5. The Wider Rural Context - The Review of Food, Farming and Access

5.1 The development of new legislation affecting access is being implemented at the same time as the Government's review of the future of farming and food (as set out in a separate report on this agenda).

5.2 In addition to the access provisions already discussed, the CROW Act includes new legislation covering land management and further protection to Sites of Special Scientific Interest. This will provide challenges to both farmers and landowners and also opportunities for partnership with public bodies and agencies.

5.3 To be successful therefore, the management and development of increased access to the countryside and the priorities of the Local Access Forum need to be fully integrated into the review of food and farming, and land management plans in particular. What is clear is that success will depend to a great extent upon the goodwill of, and partnership with, the farming community.

6. Conclusion

6.1 The Government has recognised that aspirations for the countryside have changed, and is reviewing the relationship with the farming community. The County Council has for many years recognised the public's interest in the countryside and its Countryside Service is well placed to meet the new agenda. Access to the countryside is one of the first major new initiatives and the County Council will be supported by the valuable work of its IADP national pilot project, together with advice from the Local Access Forum. Both will be needed to ensure that the public gets the best from the Rights of Way and access network - a priceless resource which needs to be adapted to meet today's needs.

6.2 Initial work through the IADP, together with the Countryside Service infrastructure of sites, facilities and access networks, leaves it well-positioned to develop key strands of activity in support of the corporate strategy. This will be enhanced by its position within the new Recreation and Heritage Department and will form the basis of a strategy to maximise such opportunities while utilising available resources effectively.

6.3 The ideas set out in this report will need to be discussed with the Local Access Forum and taken forward in the light of further regulations and the role out of CROW. Members may wish to monitor the impact of this within Hampshire and revisit the role of the County Council in supporting that process at a later date.

6.4 The cabinet has considered the report and it was resolved to:

(i) support the work of the Integrated Access Demonstration Programme and the objective of making this new approach a core objective of Hampshire County Council;

(ii) approve the ideas set out in this report for exploration at the meeting of the Local Access Forum Working Party on 9 July 2002;

(iii) welcome the new resources identified in response to the Countryside and Rights of Way Act and resolves that a further report be submitted to the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage setting out a short and long term strategy for the most effective use of these resources; and

(iv) approve the proposal for the County Council to provide help in the dissemination of information about the new mapping process, to both the public and affected landowners.

(v) strongly support the Coast to Countryside integrated bus initiative.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Recreation and Heritage PRC:

i) endorses the work of the Integrated Access Demonstration Programme and

ii) supports the Countryside Service in the development of access opportunities.

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