[Talk-GB] Public Rights of Way

[James Davis]

Nick Whitelegg wrote:

> Someone probably needs to sort this out with a council. Maybe I'll get 
> round to doing it with mine at some stage.

I contacted my local council with a freedom of information request -
asking if I could obtain vector information of particular rights of way
from them. After some misunderstanding of what I was asking for, it
transpired that I couldn't have the information as they don't currently
maintain their definitive map/statement in electronic form.

A friend of mine who works for a different local authority had a word
with the rights of way team there (who do use an electronic system) and
they were under the impression that the data was tied up with the OS
licensing as much of it was simply traced from the OS data. I believe
that other LA's have had problems publishing data overlayed onto, say
Google Maps, for the same reasons.

We may be underestimating the intertwined nature of the definitive map
/statement and OS data.

Also, the definitive map/statement is not even definitive! The
Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 set a cut off date of 2026 for
all rights of way to be recorded on definitive statements or be lost,
and the Government started a project titled 'Discovering Lost Ways' that
recently wound down having failed to record even a single lost right of
way. A new working group is considering what to do next...
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/enjoying/places/rightsofway/swgrow/default.aspx

HTH,

James