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Countryman Diary - May 2010
The Stakeholder Working Group on Unrecorded Public Rights of Way
At the end of March several national bodies united in delivering a ground-breaking set of recommendations to Government designed to improve the law and procedures concerning old public rights of way.
The incompleteness of legal records regarding public rights of way has been a contentious subject for many years. The Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000 sought to address this by providing a cut-off date in 2026, by which time any unrecorded pre-1949 public rights of way would cease to exist if not specifically preserved by regulations.
Natural England set up a stakeholder working group which has now handed a document, ‘Stepping Forward’, to Government for consideration.
The Ramblers, one of the stakeholder group members, heralded the new proposals as the key to “saving our paths from extinction”. Adrian Morris, a Ramblers campaigner, says:
“The Stepping Forward measures are key to protecting much of our unique — but beleaguered — public rights of way network from extinction. “Many well-used driftways, halterways, bridleways and footpaths were overlooked when councils drew up their definitive maps; that’s no reason for writing them out of our heritage, especially given their value in recreation and health promotion. The Ramblers backs Stepping Forward as a coherent, whole package of measures only. The recommendations will not work if they are cherry-picked.”
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and National Farmers Union (NFU), who were also part of the stakeholder group, say they are relieved that Natural England has accepted the recommendations, but both organisations stressed it is vital that the Government keeps its side of the bargain with the 2026 cut-off date.
They say that currently farmers and land mangers can find themselves facing a claim that there is a public right of access across their land based purely on evidence dating back centuries.
CLA president William Worsley says: “We are very pleased the end is in sight, even though it may still be some way off. People’s homes or businesses could be damaged by erroneous claims that, because the public had a right to cross that stretch of land in ancient times, they still do, even if that right has not been exercised for decades or even centuries.”
NFU President Peter Kendall adds: “For NFU members this package of proposals for reform would mean an end to claims coming ‘out of the blue’ which are based on historical evidence and have no place in a modern farming business. It could also see an end to the current situation where applications for rights of way, which are supported by poor evidence, can end up blighting a property for many years.”
Copies of the ‘Stepping Forward’ report can be downloaded via the Natural England website at http://naturalengland.etraderstores.com/NaturalEnglandShop/NECR035.
Champion beef at the 2009 Northumberland County Show; this year's show is on 31 May.
Read my editors blog during May for details of other dates for your country diary.
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Marines help Heathland
Royal Marines from Lympstone have organised the airlift of 100 bales of gorse as part of an operation to help safeguard rare lowland heaths in east Devon. The bales will be used to reinforce and protect important bog areas on the East Devon Pebblebed Heaths, which have been seriously eroded over the winter.
A Sea King helicopter from 848 Squadron Royal Navy, supported by Royal Marines from Lympstone, will transport the bales to three different locations on the heaths. The bogs are home to rare flora and fauna which can only be found on a few remaining lowland heaths in Britain.
Commons warden Bungy Williams tells me: “The bogs hold hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and recent weather has caused the peat to become badly eroded. This means that the bogs turn into rivers and the plants simply get washed away. Without the plants, the wildlife cannot survive.
“We have harvested the gorse from the heaths and put it into bales, and the Royal Marines will be helping us to move it to these hard-to-reach areas. We’ve used gorse in the past to help repair the bogs and it has worked successfully, but this is the first time we’ve ever done an operation of this scale.”
Mass crash-landing starling
I had a bit of a shock recently when a bird flew into my car’s windscreen while I was driving. It was being chased by another and I presume my accidental intervention put paid to its amorous intentions. The momentary sadness I felt will have been nothing to how one householder in Somerset felt in March.
Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, seventy-five starlings crashed to the ground and died on a single driveway in Coxley.
RSPCA animal welfare officer Alison Sparkes was alerted to the unusual incident by the police. She discovered that most of the birds had suffered broken beaks, broken legs and wings and abdominal injuries, but were otherwise in good bodily condition.
All but five of the birds were dead, and the rest had to be put to sleep by veterinary staff at the RSPCA’s West Hatch Wildlife Centre.
“It was a remarkable sight,” Alison says, “and I’ve never seen anything like it before. Onlookers said they heard a whooshing sound and then the birds just hit the ground. They had fallen onto quite a small area, about twelve feet (3.5 m) in diameter. Our best guess is that this happened because the starlings were trying to escape a predator such as a sparrowhawk and ended up crash landing.”
Has anyone else witnessed anything similar?
All in Black and White
A young lad sidled up to an old farmer who was staring into a sheep pen at the local show.
“Do you know which sheep eats the most grass, mister — black uns or white uns?”
The farmer scratched his head and replied: “I really don’t know, son.”
“Well I do, mister,” replied the boy triumphantly. “It’s white uns, ’cos there’s a lot more of ’em."
Competition Winners
Winners of the April crossword are Stewart Preston, London NW2 - David Lloyd-Rees, Swansea and Mick Burnell, Caterham, Surrey.
Neil Somerville provided the solution to Aprils Sudoku.
Thank you to all those who entered.
Paul Jackson
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