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Concern about the countryside as a resource has been always been a difficult issue with tensions from local people, government, local authorities and interest groups. There is at present much debate about the countryside in general from the Ramblers Association and others calling for the free "right to roam" the countryside, anti-fox hunting demonstrations, concern about the building on green belt land to name but a few. Growing environmental education has contributed in no small part to increasing awareness that the countryside should be protected and managed in such a way as to be sustainable. The issue of motor vehicles on rights of way has proven particularly troublesome. As the motorcar is seen already as one of the 20th century's worst environmental monsters, the "image" of four wheel drive vehicles tearing up the countryside is enough to make many environmentalists and interest groups see red. Headlines such as
"Thousands of off-road drivers face ban from national park trails" (Pugh, 1997, p12) put off roaders on the defensive, protecting their sport and causes lack of progress, each side being locked against each other protecting their views. Environmentalists are concerned with the effects that such vehicles have on the countryside, but can claims that are often aimed at vehicles destroying the countryside and interfering with other user groups enjoyment be substantiated?
This project relates to the rights of way in England and Wales as the laws regarding rights of way in Scotland are different,
"There is no requirement to log rights of way, and unused rights of way can be deleted if not used for 20yrs." (Hetherington, February 24 1998, p13.)
In 1949 the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act required that all county councils in England and Wales identify their rights of way and prepare definitive maps showing the exact locations and type of right of ways available to the public. For a path to become a right of way it must have been in use by the public for twenty years without interference from the landowner. Provision was made for objections, but once entered onto the definitive map a right of way's status was to be upheld in court and the local authority was responsible for protecting the public right to pass along them. One of the first legal definitions of a right of way was the Pennine Way which was designated in 1951, due in no small part to Tom Stephenson and the Ramblers' Association. It was nearly thirty years later that the Ramblers' Association claimed that
"many definitive maps are incomplete and out of date, and there are still many rights of way in existence that are not recorded on the maps." (Ramblers Association, 1980, p4.)
In 1987 the Countryside Commission in its paper Policies for Enjoying the Countryside set a target that
"All rights of way should be legally defined, properly maintained and well publicised by the end of the century".
The main reasons for this target were the realisation that there was a lack of public awareness, lack of access especially due to the poor state of the rights of way
(Continued ...)
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