Monitoring the Progress of Access Authorities - Latest Summary
A monitoring regime is in place to assess the progress and expenditure of local authorities and national park authorities (in their role as access authorities) in upholding and facilitating access rights, planning a system of core paths and giving the public reasonable access throughout their areas.
As at 31 March 2011 there were:
· 21,177 km of signposted or waymarked paths
· 20 access authorities had adopted their core paths plans which cover 8320 km of paths.
· Of these, 4929 km were signposted or waymarked and 3770 km were maintained by the access authority.
Summary - Annual trends 2005/06 to 2010/11
| 2005/06* | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 |
Local Access Forum meetings | 195 | 174 | 170 | 156 | 155 | 135 |
Section 11 exemption orders (under 6 days) 1 | 43 | 45 | 39 | 57 | 43 | 56 |
Section 11 exemption orders (6 days and over) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
Section 14 notices served to remove obstructions 2 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
Section 21 path agreements 3 | 19 | 10 | 11 | 16 | 13 | 12 |
Length of core paths (km) 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2976 | 5917 | 8320 |
*data is for period 9 February 2005 - 31 March 2006
1 Section 11 Orders can exempt land from access rights for legitimate purposes eg. car rallies. Orders for 6 days or more require approval of Ministers.
2 Section 14 notices are issued to require a land manager to remove an obstruction to access
3 Section 21 path agreements are made between the access authority and a land manager to delineate a path.
4 The number of access authorities that have adopted their core paths plan varies from year to year.
Expenditure - 1 April, 2005 to 31 March, 2011
The following table illustrates trends in expenditure by access authorities for the financial years 2005/06 to 2009/10:
| 2005/06 | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 |
Path Capital Works (£m) Match Funding (£m) Path Maintenance Works (£m) --------------------- TOTAL | 5.78 6.40 1.45* ------ 13.63 | 6.81 6.63 1.95 ------ 15.39 | 5.49 7.10 2.16 ------ 14.75 | 5.01 4.33 1.54 ------ 10.88 | 4.56 4.55 1.82 ------ 10.93 | 5.34 5.77 1.74 ----- 12.85 |
Access Officers Full-time equivalents Salaries expenditure (£m) | - 67.6 1.99 | - 65.5 2.14 | - 62.3 1.96 | - 60.0 2.01 | - 58.9 2.02 | - 57.1 2.10 |
Local Access Forum Running costs (£k) | 40.1 | 48.6 | 55.1 | 53.4 | 55.5 | 49.0 |
Expenditure publicising Scottish Outdoor Access Code (£k) | 128.7 | 136.9 | 161.1 | 57.4 | 64.3 | 51.8 |
Other CostsX (£m) | 0.76 | 2.88 | 1.57 | 1.48 | 1.38 | 1.37 |
* Data for City of Edinburgh Council is not included as it was thought to be a substantial over-estimate.
X For example on core paths plan printing, IT provision, other staff time, travel costs, route feasibility studies, people counters, visitor centres etc.