Thank you
for the opportunity to comment on the above document. The Isle of Wight Council’s Environment and Transport Select
Committee has debated the contents of the document and has consulted with the
Local Access Forum, The Area of Outstanding Beauty (AONB) Partnership and the
Council’s own Archaeological Unit.
The Isle
of Wight has a network of 827 kms of public rights of way recorded on the
definitive map, 47 kms of which are byways open to all traffic (BOATs). All of these were formerly roads used as
public paths (RUPPs) but were reclassified in the 1980s under the Wildlife and
Countryside Act 1981. Eighty per cent
of the Island’s BOATs lie within the AONB which covers just over half the area
of the Isle of Wight.
The Isle
of Wight Council is a leading authority in rights of way management being the
only council to have achieved the national target for rights of way. The
Council has a post-target rights of way development strategy (2001 – 2006)
which includes among its aims “ to minimize the environmental impact of the
recreational use of the rights of way network” and to “conserve the physical
character of the Island’s byways”.
The Isle
of Wight Council welcomes the Minister’s initiative to reduce the impact of
irresponsible use of mechanically propelled vehicles in the countryside. The Council supports Proposals 1 to 6, but
reflecting the views of the Local Access Forum, does not support Proposal 7
because no new cut off date is being suggested.
However,
the Council wish to encourage the Minister to consider further measures. Firstly, that in order to deter damage to
protected sites in the vicinity of byways – a particular problem on the Isle of
Wight – the police should be given extra resources to enforce s.34 of The Road
Traffic Act 1988 and use their powers under The Police Reform Act 2002. The Council also recommends that the power
to make traffic regulation orders under s.1 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act
1984 should be widened to include the protection of sites of historic or
archaeological importance.
Secondly,
that there should be a more flexible approach to Traffic Regulation
Orders. The Isle of Wight Council is
represented on a byway management group (the Tennyson Trail Task Group) set up
by the Isle of Wight AONB Partnership to address the problem of damage to a
particular BOAT and its adjacent landscape, including SSSIs and Scheduled
Ancient Monuments. This group, which
includes all the stakeholders, has been successful in securing a reduction of
vehicle use in wet weather through voluntary restraint, and support for an
emergency closure when damage occurred through thoughtless driving in
waterlogged conditions. However, for an
emergency closure to be justified the BOAT has to have deteriorated severely
and the Council would wish to have powers to make a flexible TRO which could be
imposed and lifted as circumstances dictate.
The
Council is concerned about the visual impact of traffic signs associated with a
Traffic Regulation Order. As I said
earlier, over half the Isle of Wight is AONB and the Council would recommend
that in such areas the requirement to erect vehicle prohibition signs which
comply with the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 should be
waived to allow for the installation of effective but sympathetically-designed
notices.
Finally,
the Minister may be interested to know that the Council’s Archaeological Unit
together with English Heritage have undertaken a joint monitoring programme
along the Tennyson Trail BOAT to gather measurable data on the damage done to
the Scheduled Monuments in 2003. This
data can be made available for any purpose in relation to the current review.