A project is currently underway by Natural England to try and ‘Discover Lost Ways’. Legislation in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 means that any historic footpaths not recorded on the definitive map by 2026 will be extinguished.

The threat of this clause within the CRoW Act, which applies to any right of way that existed before 1 January 1949, means that potentially, footpaths that we know and love today could be extinguished by 2026. In particular, there is the threat that those non-definitive paths that were used as public paths prior to 1949 (for which there may be little or no documentary evidence), may be lost.

The introduction of a cut-off date for claims of rights of way has been unwelcome by the BMC and a number of recreational organisations. It constitutes an exemption to the “once a highway, always a highway” principle upon which many claims are founded. Natural England have therefore been asked to run the ‘Discovering Lost Ways’ (DLW) project to try to complete the definitive map before historical rights are extinguished.

The project is currently researching historic rights in regions across the country to identifying the extent of unrecorded rights of way and how best to go about finding this historic, but often locally well known, information. Natural England are calling on Local Access Forums for advice on the future scope and direction of the project. If you sit on a Local Access Forum (LAF) then you can have say as to how your LAF could contribute to the delivery of DLW so that it reflects local needs and circumstances. If you are interested in commenting, then NE have posted a series of questions for your LAF to consider but you only have until 30th October to formulate your answers. The BMC would encourage its members to ask their LAF Chair about this to ensure we do not loose any of our historic footpaths.

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