Guy, A few points which may help on the minutes which Edwina posted last night. Looking for land ownership details is a good idea, but I also where possible be looking to see what rights of access, easements etc may be allowed on tracts of land or existing access routes. Land Registry information wont necessarily tell you this and its usually something you would contract a Land Referencing outfit to do. It will be very important to know this information further down the line, as you will need by in from Land Owners if you want to upgrade existing PRoWs or create new ones. A website you will find useful is magic.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx as this contains information on statutory ecological and historical designations (Its an interactive map). There are a number of SSSIs around (Bocconoc Woods most notiably), which if you intend to do any construction activities in, however small, will need engagement with Natural England on. As you are looking at route options, I would reccomend checking out this website and flagging whether any route options go near designations and making a note of them. Local Nature Reserves and fairly numerous, but less problamatic. Its also likely that any major works would require some form of Environmental Impact Assesment (EIA) to show the construction activities and operational use of a cycle way/cycle hub facility would have no detrimental impact on the environment - i.e. tarmaccing a route would note increase flooding in an area. Something to bare in mind. Lastly, and linked to my initial point, I would look at obtaining a copy of the definitive map from Cornwall Council - Edwina might be able to help obtain this - this is the definitive source for all PRoWs. Any upgrades to existing PRoW to enable cycling on them, would be subject to an ammendment under the Highways Act, unless you can get the Landowner to dedicate it as a Bridleway. Making something purely a cycleway, is likely to upset horse owners/riders and they could object to any applications under HA, and which in turn would slow the process down. Also, under the HA route, land owners can object too, so it is in everyones interests to get land owners on side. Another possible option is make a route permissive, which many PRoWs are, however the Land owners retains the right to withdraw the status at any time. i.e. they can downgrade it to a footpath if they wanted. Planning App would be needed if you were creating new infrastructure - bridges, widening route beyond the existing highway boundary (Highway in this sense covers footpaths, not just roads). Hope the above is helpful context. Mike. P.S - Edwina - I am not with the EA anymore! Havent been for three years ;-)
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:51:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015