Agenda and minutes

Apologies were heard from Councillor Steve Broadbent. Councillor Peter Martin attended as a substitute in his place, as his Deputy Cabinet Member.

There were none.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 19^th July 2023 be agreed as a correct record, pending the addition of apologies not recorded from Karen Haining (representing walkers, cyclists, and horse riders).

Helen Francis (Senior Definitive Map Officer) & Claire Hudson (Definitive Map and Highway Searches Team Leader), Buckinghamshire Council.

The LAF received a presentation from Claire Hudson (Definitive Map and Highway Searches Team Leader) and Helen Francis (Senior Definitive Map Officer) which gave an overview of the work  undertaken by the Highways and Technical Service (HTS), which was comprised of two separate teams, the ROW Ops who oversaw maintenance and enforcement tasks, and the Definitive Map and Highway Searches Team (DM&HS) who were responsible for the legal aspects of Rights of Way and strategic work. A copy of the slides would be appended to the minutes of the meeting. The following key points were raised:

The Definitive Map and Highway Searches Team was comprised of seven full time posts and two part time posts. These were as follows:

·   1x Team Leader

·   3x Definitive Map Officers (inc. 1 Snr)

·   2x Strategic Access Officers (inc. 1 Snr)

·   1x Team Assistant

·   2x Highway Searches Officers (both part time)

One of the definitive map positions was vacant, and a recruitment process was underway. Seven applications had been received for the post as of the date of the meeting. It was hoped that the position would be filled by the end of the year.

The equivalent of 3.6 full time officers were allocated to definitive map work, which demanded the most officer resource within the DM&HS team. Other officers prioritised highway searches, property searches, highway searches and strategic access.

The key activities of the Service included:

·   definitive map modification orders (DMMOs): claims to make changes to legal records based on historic and user evidence. It was explained that each investigation required a significant amount of officer time and could take months or years to conclude.

·   public path orders (PPOs): applications seeking to change the existing network in the interests of the landowner and/or the public. They ran alongside DMMOs (being of equal priority within the service) and could take less time to complete.

·   village green applications (TVGs): applications to register village greens, often on private land. These could be complex, lengthy, and expensive, and often resulted in non-statutory public inquiries.

·   commons applications: applications to deregister part of the common lands under certain circumstances.

Other responsibilities included dealing with landowner statements, temporary traffic regulation orders, public right of way enquiries, anomalies, and working on major projects like East West Rail (EWR) and HS2.

The DM&HS team had been working on the hand back of Twyford Footpath 2, and Little Horwood Footpath 20 following EWR works ensuring that they were not a cost to the council.

Two TVGs, (Stoke Hammond and Shootacre Lane), have been concluded and were going to inquiry next year.

The DM&HS team was facing several challenges, including a high workload, several difficult and contentious cases, financial pressures due to budget constraints and expensive village green applications. Future pressures were also expected from the implementation of the Deregulation Act and the ‘Lost Ways’ extension to 2031. Further rights of way closures were expected owing to an anticipated influx of applications from the National Grid.

Despite the challenges, the DM  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Jonathan Clark (Senior Strategic Access Officer) & James Spratley (Strategic Access Officer), Buckinghamshire Council.

Jonathan Clark (Senior Strategic Access Officer) gave an overview of the Rights of Way Improvement Plan (ROWIP) report, which had largely been largely completed in 2021. The ROWIP spanned from 2020 to 2030, and Jonathan apologized for the delay in presenting the first year’s report to the LAF.

The report was structured around six chapters of the ROWIP plan:

1.    Mapping the network: Involves the Definitive Map team.

2.    Maintenance team: led by Joanne Taylor (Highways & Technical Services Team Leader).

3.    Evolving network and improvements: the planning work done by the Strategic Access Officers.

4.    Knowing where to go: management of promoted routes, national trails, and sensitive sites.

5.    Access for everyone: Promotes healthy communities, disabled access to the countryside, and encourages underrepresented groups to feel welcome.

6.    Effective delivery: Discusses how the rights of way improvement plan is delivered, the partnerships, managing the Local Access Forum, pre-application comments for developers, working with parish councils, and website presentation.

Feedback was sought from the LAF on the presentation, structure, and substance of the report, and whether more statistics should be included, though graphs and tables would be difficult to include due to website accessibility. It was noted that the Highways & Technical Services Team Leader’s Maintenance report for the year was missing but could be found in minutes of the LAF from 2021. It was hoped that the year 2 to 4 report would be presented to the LAF in November 2024.

Following feedback, the following key points were made:

• A list of current map anomalies was kept, and it was estimated that there were around eighty.
• The responsibility of enforcement fell under the jurisdiction of the Area Officers within Highways & Technical Services Team. Most enforcement cases involved minor issues and were usually resolved without enforcement action and legal services. The number of formal enforcement notices ranged from between 0 and 5 per-year.
• The management matrix was the system used to manage maintenance issues based on their priority level. It was agreed to ask if figures related to the number of issues resolved against each priority level could be extracted and reported to the LAF.

ACTION: Team Leader Enforcement & Maintenance

The website showed a working copy of the definitive map, and any changes made were reflected on the website, usually within a week or even overnight. The definitive map had last been printed in 2006, and a new print remained a priority but had been delayed due to significant changes made regularly by ongoing projects like HS2 and East West Rail.

Changes to the Definitive Map were communicated to the Ordinance Survey as they happened, but there was no ability for the DM&HS Team to police how quickly these were update by the OS.

Claire Hudson (Definitive Map and Highways Searches Team Leader); Jonathan Clark, James Spratley (Strategic Access Officers); and Joanne Taylor (Rights of Way Operations Team Leader).

Attention was drawn to the attached report, detailing current and upcoming DMMO work, divided into:

Section A: covering applications currently under active investigation.

Section B: covering applications that will begin investigations in the next twelve months.

Sections C & D: covering the remaining backlog of applications.

Members of the LAF were invited to ask any questions they had regarding specific applications. The following was discussed:

·   There were ongoing complexities around south-west Aylesbury, including the HS2 plans, the south-west Aylesbury link road, and a major housing development allocated in the Local Plan [Aylesbury Garden Town AGT-2].

·   The Little Missenden sinkhole had been repaired by Align, a HS2 contractor. They were expected to revisit the site in the spring of 2024 to add topsoil and seed it back to grass. The situation was currently stable, and there were no reports of other sinkholes or issues.

The Chiltern Society ‘Donate a Gate’ scheme had been relaunched and has to-date received between 14 donations equating to 21 gates. The price had risen from £250 to £500 per gate, which was encouraging considering the increased cost.

There had been another round of Local Transport Plan consultations, reiterating the LAF’s comments from the July 2023 meeting concerning road safety for equestrians and the sustainable transport element that the rights of way network provides.

The Google Street View GoPro project was ongoing. ‘Filming’ had taken place in Ivinghoe, Pitstone Hill, and most of Coombe Hill, with Whiteleaf planned next. The process from filming to uploading on Google took approximately two weeks, depending on the length of the route scanned and corresponding electronic file size.

DEFRA was reopening applications for their Access for All fund with a deadline of January 2024. The council was considering ideas for funding applications.

Joanne Taylor from the operations team had provided an updated within Appendix 2 of her team’s performance figures between 1st April 2023 to 23rd October 2023. Two area rights of way assistants had been recruited and were providing more work for the Chiltern Society’s volunteers. BVPI figures were also listed alongside a capital projects update, and a revenue projects update.

Following questions, it was confirmed that there would likely be another BVPI check this in the winter/spring of 2023/24.

It was also clarified by Councillor P Martin that the section of the Missenden Valley greenway from The Firecrest Pub [Dunsmore] to The Black Horse, Great Missenden had been delayed. It was expected to be completed and have an opening ceremony in spring 2024. He agreed to find out the exact status of the section from Wendover to the Firecrest Pub and report back to the LAF.

ACTION: Cllr Peter Martin

Jonathan Clark gave an overview of the report, highlighting the following points:

·   An update to the Buckinghamshire local walking, cycling, and infrastructure plan [LCWIP] was expected in 2024 with a more meaningful draft report available for comment at the March 2024 LAF meeting.

·   The 50th anniversary of the Ridgeway was celebrated on the 29th of October 2023. The event was well-attended by LAF members and included speeches, photos, press coverage and thoughts for the next fifty years of the Ridgeway.

·   Natural England’s online information database, previously known as the Huddle, has been replaced by Sharepoint. Members would be registered on the directory unless they said otherwise.

·   It was suggested that the LAF have a morning training session at the Centre for Outdoor Accessibility Training (COAT) in Aston Rowant, Oxfordshire, which included a display area of gaps, gates, and stiles. The Chairman agreed this would be good training for everyone.

·   A Chiltern Society meeting was held where the new donate a gate organiser, area secretaries, and volunteers met some of the rights of way team. There was a request for more work from the path maintenance volunteers and a request for officer to consider giving them work normally given landowners, in order simply to get the work done quicker. There was also a request by the council for the PMVs to report online issues that were no longer a problem to clear the backlog on the system.

·   A ‘Widening the welcome’ workshop was held by the Chilterns Conservation Board, which was well-received by LAF member and officer attending. The workshop focused on including more diverse communities across the walking network. An informative talk was given by Professor Ghurch Randhawa from the University of Bedfordshire, and a presentation was also made by the Chairman of the LAF on welcoming visitors to the National Trust’s countryside sites in the Chilterns.

·   An update on the East-West Rail was included for LAF Members. It was still unconfirmed whether there would be a rail passenger link south to Aylesbury, but an economic argument was being made, supported by Aylesbury MP, Rob Butler, who had asked questions in the House of Commons, and Buckingham MP, Greg Smith, through his role on the Transport Select Committee. Funding of £30,000 had been put forward to support the economic case for the link.

·       10am 6^th March 2024 (Jubilee Room, The Gateway)

·       10am 10^th July 2024 (Paralympic Room, The Gateway)

·       10am 6^th November 2024 (Paralympic Room, The Gateway)

10am 6^th March 2024 (Jubilee Room, The Gateway); 10am 10^th July 2024 (Paralympic Room); and 10am 6th November 2024 (Paralympic Room).