Diverting a public right of way under section 257

A section 257 footpath diversion is the order you need when a public right of way crosses the footprint of something you have planning permission to build. Section 257 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets the local planning authority authorise the stopping up or diversion of a footpath, bridleway or restricted byway where it is satisfied that this is necessary to enable development to be carried out in accordance with a planning permission.

Planning permission alone does not move the path. The right of way remains a highway until an order is made and confirmed, and wilfully obstructing it is a criminal offence under section 137 of the Highways Act 1980.

When a section 257 order is the right tool

Three different regimes deal with rights of way, and picking the wrong one wastes months.

Section 257 applies where the reason for the change is development authorised by a planning permission, and it covers footpaths, bridleways and restricted byways. It is made by the local planning authority.

Section 247 of the Highways Act 1980 covers the stopping up or diversion of a highway, including a vehicular road, to enable development. It is made by the Secretary of State on application, which makes it a slower and more formal process.

Sections 118 and 119 of the Highways Act 1980 deal with extinguishment and diversion on public interest or landowner grounds where no development is involved. The tests are different and harder, particularly for extinguishment, and a surveying authority will often decline to make an order on those grounds where a development-based route exists.

If the path crosses the line of your building, your access road or your garden, section 257 is the route. If it runs across a field you simply want cleared, it is not.

The statutory test and who applies it

The test is necessity. The authority has to be satisfied that stopping up or diverting the path is necessary to enable the development to be carried out in accordance with the permission. That is a lower bar than it sounds, because a building standing on the line of a path makes the diversion necessary in the ordinary sense, but it does have edges.

Where the development could easily be built around the path, the test is not met. A layout that places a garden over a footpath, when the plot could have been arranged differently, invites the response that the diversion is convenient rather than necessary. Design the layout with the path in mind and, where you do need to move it, show on a drawing why the development cannot proceed otherwise.

Normally you want the planning permission in place before the order is made, and an order should not be confirmed so as to take effect before the development it serves is authorised. Where a permission is subject to conditions that control the layout, make sure the order's new route matches the approved plans, because a mismatch between the two documents is a gift to an objector.

A planning statement that identifies the right of way, explains the proposed new route and confirms that an order will be sought is worth including at application stage. Case officers notice when a path crosses a red line and nobody mentions it.

Making the order and who must be notified

The authority drafts the order, with a plan showing the existing route to be stopped up and the new route in a different colour, and then publishes it.

Publication and notice requirements include:

1. A notice in at least one local newspaper.
2. Notices displayed at each end of the affected length of path, and at the ends of the proposed new route.
3. Notice to the parish or community council and to the relevant district and county authorities.
4. Notice to the prescribed national amenity bodies, which in practice means the Ramblers and the Open Spaces Society, with the British Horse Society where a bridleway is involved.
5. Notice to every owner, occupier and lessee of the land crossed, and to statutory undertakers with apparatus in the path.

The objection period is 28 days from publication. If no objection is received, or any objections are withdrawn, the authority can confirm the order itself as an unopposed order. That is the outcome to work towards, and it is worth engaging with the amenity bodies and the parish council before the order is published rather than after.

What those organisations care about is usually predictable. Length of the diverted route compared with the original, whether the new route is enclosed between fences or hedges, surface and drainage, gradients, gates and stiles, views, and whether the new line follows a sensible desire line or an awkward dog-leg around the back of a plot. Address each of those in the design and most objections disappear.

Objections and the Planning Inspectorate

If an objection is made and not withdrawn, the authority cannot confirm its own order. The order is referred to the Secretary of State and determined by an inspector from the Planning Inspectorate, by written representations, a hearing or a public inquiry depending on the issues.

The inspector considers whether the statutory test is met and whether the order should be confirmed, with or without modification. Modifications are common: a wider route, a different surface, a requirement for the new path to be made up before the old one closes.

Budget six to twelve months for an unopposed order from instruction to coming into force, and considerably longer where there is an objection and an inquiry. That timetable is why the order should be started in parallel with the planning application rather than after permission is granted.

Temporary closures while you build

A temporary closure is a separate and much quicker process. Where works make it unsafe for the public to use a path, a temporary order under section 14 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 can close or restrict it for a defined period, usually with a signed alternative route.

Three things to get right. Apply early, because authorities have internal lead times and charge a fee. Provide an alternative route that people will actually use, since a diversion adding half a mile to a school walk will be ignored and the hoarding breached. And keep the signage and the closure dates accurate, because a closure that stays in place after the works finish attracts complaints and enforcement.

Set out the closure, the alternative route and the signage in the construction management plan, together with how pedestrians will be kept safe where the path runs alongside the works rather than through them.

Sequencing against commencement

The order and the development have to be choreographed, and the sequence is strict.

Work out, before you start, exactly which operations can be carried out without obstructing the path. Groundworks elsewhere on the site, the site compound on land away from the path, and the access construction can usually proceed. Anything on the line of the path cannot.

Many authorities impose a condition preventing development on the line of a right of way until the order has been confirmed and has come into force. Where there is no such condition, the restriction still exists in highway law, and a contractor who fences across a footpath has committed an offence regardless of what the planning permission says.

A sensible order includes a provision that the new route must be constructed to a specified standard, and certified by the authority, before the old route is stopped up. That protects the public and gives you a clear trigger for closing the original line.

Costs, timescales and the definitive map

The developer pays. Authorities charge for processing a section 257 order, and the standard arrangement is a written agreement covering the authority's officer time, advertising, site notices and the cost of any inquiry. Ask for the fee structure at the outset, because the figures vary widely between authorities and an inquiry is the expensive outcome.

Construction of the new route, surfacing, drainage, gates, waymarking and any fencing is also the developer's cost, and it should be in the build budget rather than appearing as a surprise.

Once the order comes into force, the surveying authority must amend the definitive map and statement to record the change. Chase that. A diversion that is in force but not recorded on the definitive map causes problems on a later sale, and it is far easier to resolve while the order papers are fresh.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; rights of way law is technical and the consequences of getting it wrong include prosecution, so take advice from a solicitor or a rights of way specialist before obstructing any path.

You can browse all 66 report types to see which documents a development crossed by a right of way is likely to need. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.