What is this about?
This option aims to encourage the improvement of access opportunities and the upkeep of access areas on land and inland water, through the creation and upgrading of paths and routes, provision of facilities and amenities, land management measures, and monitoring of access use.
What will this achieve?
This option will encourage responsible public outdoor access and will help to integrate access with rural land management. It will generate wide ranging benefits for people, helping them to enjoy the outdoors and promoting physical activity and health.
The access facilities will be a sustainable resource, for use by nearby communities, visitors, and by enterprises in the locality, and will generate broad social and economic benefits. The facilities will also create the conditions for better development and management of outdoor access and recreation opportunities.
What you can do
You can do one or more of the following activities in your proposal:
- Path/route construction, upgrading and associated works. This can include path surfacing, drainage, gates, bridges, steps, boardwalks, including provisions for particular user groups such as horse riders, water based use, and all abilities. It can also include measures to improve access near to communities and to better manage access near sensitive sites.
- Vegetation reduction to enable access. This can include mowing, brashing, high pruning as appropriate to the site.
- Provision of amenities such as car parking areas, seats, picnic tables, hides for wildlife watching, hard standings and dog exercise areas close to arrival points.
- Provision of safety features if required to create or facilitate access to viewpoints, water margins and well used areas. This can include handrails, lifebelts and signs.
- Monitoring. This can include operation of people-counters, normally automated sensors/counters placed under or beside a path, which detect and log the number of people using that path. Surveys and other similar means to monitor levels and characteristics of public use, as an aid to management planning.
- Signage - signposts, fingerposts, waymarkers and information boards.
- Associated provision of information leaflets.
Who can apply?
This Option is available to all rural land managers, community groups and non-profit organisations in all areas of Scotland, that own or occupy land. Community Groups who are applying to carry out work on someone else's land should visit the guidance at Land Ownership, Control and Withdrawal for advice on drawing up a Secure Tenancy agreement.
Priority will be given to applicants who:
- increase the amount and quality of paths and routes in and around communities, or at locations which experience, or have potential for, significant visitor use
- increase the amount and quality of paths and routes between communities
- increase the amount and quality of paths and routes to, through and along places of interest
- improve the integration between access and rural land management
- assist the suitable implementation and monitoring of core paths
- achieve improvements for multi-use paths, and for specific user groups, including horse riders, all-abilities, canoeists and cyclists
- demonstrate liaison with the local access authority, to help co-ordinate with local access priorities
When planning your project, you are strongly advised to contact your Local Authority or National Park Authority access officer to seek their advice. This will be in your interests so that you can demonstrate a good fit with any other existing or proposed access measures and local path networks.
Eligibility criteria
Documents to submit with your application
You must submit a 1:10,000 scale map that shows the detail of your project including the location of your path/route and the location and type of capital items in your proposal. You must provide a copy of this map to your local authority or national park authority access officer, before you submit your application.
You must enclose written evidence from your local authority or national park authority that they have received the map. The information in the map may be used as the basis for public information on access opportunities in the area.
You should confirm in writing that no other funding mechanism, organisation or individual is enhancing or maintaining any of the paths or facilities identified in your proposal.
If you have shared responsibility for the fence or dyke, you must complete a
Shared Boundary Agreement form. Please note that you will be responsible for ensuring that the capital works are completed to the required specification and are fit for purpose
Tarmac/bitumen surfaced tracks
These are ineligible for any works under this Option where they will be used by motor vehicles, with the exception of motorised vehicles built or adapted for use by a person with a disability and being used by that person.
Bridges
Any bridge proposed under this measure is only eligible where the bridge is of a type which is not designed for motorised vehicle use, other than a vehicle which has been constructed or adapted for use by a person who has a disability and which will be used by such a person. The bridge must be for members of the public exercising their rights under Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and must either be an integral part of a path or link two or more paths or routes together and cannot be used for vehicle infra-structure purposes.
Relationship with other measures available under the Scotland Rural Development Programme
If your proposal is eligible for support under this option, you cannot choose instead to support it through other measures in the Scotland Rural Development Programme. These include:
Access creation for sustainable forest management, Improving access (available under
Land Managers Options)
Support for diversification outwith agriculture, Support for the development and creation of micro-enterprises, Livestock tracks, gates and river crossing, Information and awareness raising, Sustainable management of forests and woodlands (available under other
Rural Priorities options).
Boundary fences and dykes
Where you propose to renew, rebuild or restore a fence or a dyke that forms the boundary between your land and that of your neighbour, the payment will be in proportion to your level of responsibility; that is, if you and your neighbour are equally responsible for maintaining a dyke or maintaining a fence, you will be entitled to payment on half of the length of dyke or on half the length of fence respectively. You may still claim full payment for any associated items such as gates, marking to reduce bird collision or rabbit netting.
Rate of support
This is a five year commitment. You must maintain items funded under this option for 5 years following the end of the year in which the final funding was given.
We will pay up to a maximum of 75% of the actual cost per capital item. This means that you can be reimbursed for up to 75% of the costs of the activities associated with this option in the form of actual cost capital items.
Providing actual costs for capital items
In addition to the required evidence and documents, you should also provide a list of actual costs for capital items that you wish to apply to carry out that year. For example, if you were constructing a new path, actual costs could include, but are not limited to, the labour for laying the path, hard core, transport costs for materials, a gate, labour for erecting a gate, vegetation removal labour costs, vegetation removal material costs, each relevant drainage item and the labour for installing that item.
There is no limit to the number of capital items you can apply for in any one year and you can apply for different capital items every year as part of a phased proposal. Please remember to consider the Regional Priorities before applying as there is no guarantee that your proposal will be successful or that you will be offered the full 75% for each of the items you have applied for.
To ensure value for money you must provide 2 competitive quotes. The quotes for capital items must be based upon actual cost. You must include a copy of the specification used for the works covered in the quote.
If, however, you are seeking grant support towards something so specialised it is only available through 1 source then we would accept 1 quote. Please see the guidance on quotes and estimates for more information. The table below may help you to decide if a quote is reasonable.
In addition to the maximum grant levels, the total amount of grant payable for non-agricultural, commercial activities can be limited because of rules applied in relation to State Aid.
Inspection/ verification
We may inspect and verify the work that you have carried out. Please see the guidance on inspections. The inspector will verify:
- that the work including any carried out under leverage, meets the standards and conditions as set out in the approval,
- is technically sound and
- that the claimed costs are justified.
You must also keep records showing that all the relevant biosecurity and health and safety requirements have been undertaken.
Minimum Technical Specifications
You may wish to develop an access plan as part of your proposal. Your local access group may be able to assist you in undertaking an access audit of your project.
If you are applying for funding for new features you may wish to carry out a risk assessment first and you should do this according to COSHH requirements. The minimum technical specification will say if a risk assessment is required.
There is a new Equalities Act 2010 which replaces the earlier Disability Discrimination Acts of 1995 and 2005. This reinforces the case that it is unlawful for the providers of goods, facilities and services (and certain other bodies) to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of their disability. The Act requires that reasonable adjustments should be made where a service provider has a practice, policy or procedure or there is a physical feature that makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of the service. The Disability Rights Commission's Code of Practice gives some helpful guidance.
All of the following activities are eligible and can be combined in any combination of ways.
Working out your costs
The table below gives an idea of the type of costs you should expect to pay for the work that you want to carry out, although it may not list everything you would like to do. These are not standard costs and the actual cost may be higher or lower than this but, in each case, you must justify them. Costs will depend upon a number of factors, including the location, topography and soil conditions of the site, the materials used and any provisions for specific user groups. These figures represent the full cost of the work, including the estimated costs of labour, plants, machinery and materials, and we will pay up to 75% of this.
Maintenance and standard of the work you have carried out
You must carry out work to at least that minimum standard and comply with any relevant British Standard. You must maintain completed works in an appropriate functional state for at least five years following the completion of your contract. Any timber used must come from a sustainably managed forest.
Table of suggested costs
Capital Item | Suggested Actual Cost |
Basic path construction - 1.2 m to 1.5 m wide | £4 per metre |
Standard built and rolled path construction - 1.2 m to 1.5 m wide | £11 per metre |
Enhanced path construction - built & rolled, greater than 1.5 metre wide and/ or for heavy use/ wet/ steep site | £18 per metre |
Board-walk | £50 per metre |
Grass cutting in recreational areas | variable |
Waymarker | £30 each |
Signpost - Threshold | £300 each |
Signpost - Primary headboard or Finger post | £85 each |
Signpost - Interpretation Board | £350 each |
A3 or A4 leaflets | £250 per 500 |
Picnic table with bench | £250 each |
Seat | £100 each |
Car park construction | £5 per square metre |
Supply and erection of people counter | £1200 each |
Screening access paths from public highways as a noise reduction measure: vertical board fencing | £54.88 per metre |
Stock Fence | £4 per metre |
Gate | i. Gate for stock fence: £100 each ii. Gate for deer fence: £170 each |
Kissing gate/self-closing gate for non-vehicular access | £350 each |
Post & rail fence | £10 per metre |
Manual brashing | £0.35 per tree |
High pruning | £1.30 per tree |
Badger gate installed on fence lines which are cutting across an established badger run | £110 per gate |
You can find guidance on indicative costs for other possible capital works that you may wish to carry out in the table of standard costs at Agri-environment Standard Payment Rates for Capital Items
List of useful internet guidance
Good Practice: Planning for Access and Land Management and Design Guides www.outdooraccess-scotland.com/default.asp?nPageID=42&nSubContentID=0
Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC).
PEPFAA code (Prevention of Environmental Pollution from Agricultural Activity).
To find your local authority or National Park Authority access officer go to www.outdooraccess-scotland.com and click on the map for Access Contact which is on the home page. You can also find out more about the Scottish Outdoor Access Code on the website.
The following sources may contain further information about path enhancement, management and technical information on capital items.
Information on how to provide enhanced access for people with disabilities is available in "BT Countryside for All" which is available from the Fieldfare Trust ( www.fieldfare.org.uk).
Information on path management is available on "Lowland Path Construction Guide" from the Paths for All Partnership www.pathsforall.org.uk or "Upland Path Management" from SNH.
Information on item designs and structures can be found in the Countryside Access Design Guide http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/accessguide
Information on signposts and bridges is available in "Signpost Guidance" available from the Paths for All Partnership www.pathsforall.org.uk
If you need help in developing interpretation boards, panels, there are a number of items which can assist you:
"Environmental Interpretation - A Practical Guide for People with Big Ideas and Small Budgets" by Sam H Ham, Published by Fulcrum Publishing (1992) ISBN 1555919022
"A Sense of Place", an interpretive planning handbook by J Carter is available on line www.scotinterpnet.org.uk
Risk assessment - you can find further information on how to carry out a risk assessment at http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/fivesteps.htm
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