Clause 61 - Restriction on creation of new public rights of way
Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill
1:00 pm
Jim Knight (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; South Dorset, Labour)
If one were to create a motor vehicular right of way, one would be creating a road. It might be untarmacked and it might be unadopted, but it would still be a road. We are talking about future rights, rather than rights in the past. The procedure that we would go through in any other circumstances in respect of creating a road would apply. The question of a legal challenge applies if we retrospectively remove rights. I am sure that we will discuss that, perhaps even in some detail, when we come to clause 62.
One other point was raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw and repeated articulately by my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgend (Mrs. Moon), who said that she was concerned about the ability to protect biodiversity and habitats, as the whole Committee has been throughout its discussions. Again, if we apply new criteria to people who apply to assert rights—even if we were talking about the future, they would still be applying to assert historic rights—we will be into the whole business of retrospectively changing people’s rights, which, as I have said, I will discuss in much more detail in the context of clause 62. I hope that that is helpful.
The hon. Member for Banbury understandably and rightly raised issues relating to the Ridgeway. The Ridgeway national trail extends from near Avebury in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe beacon in Buckinghamshire. Roughly a quarter of it is a byway open to all traffic, a quarter is roads used as public paths and the rest is either bridleways, footpaths or quiet roads. It is widely agreed by all parties that there are long-established motor vehicular rights over roughly half of the Ridgeway so removing the historic rights, as we will be debating in relation to clause 62, does not solve many of the problems.
As with other national trails, the Ridgeway is managed by a group made up of the Countryside Agency and the local highway authorities through whose counties the trail runs. The previous Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Alun Michael), convened and chaired a series of meetings in the Palace of Westminster over a period of 18 months or so at which he encouraged the Ridgeway management group, led by the Countryside Agency, to develop a management plan to address the problems created by the use of vehicles on the Ridgeway. The plan comprised a mixture of traffic regulation orders and maintenance measures. The management plan is well under way and seems, so I am told, to be largely successful, since much of the controversy over the Ridgeway has subsided.
The hon. Member for Banbury has apologised that he is unable to be present this afternoon; he has to attend the Africa debate on the Floor of the House. I promised him that I would address his points so that he could read my reply later in Hansard. He has raised some concerns, so although some of the controversy that my Department was hearing about seems to have subsided, it clearly still exists in his constituency.
The use of traffic regulation orders will become important in resolving some of the problems on the Ridgeway and elsewhere where rights are asserted successfully and there remain problems in respect of damage to the environment by the use of mechanically-propelled vehicles.