Mapping public rights of way for a visual assessment

The legal record of a public right of way is the definitive map and statement held by the surveying authority, not the layer on the council's public mapping portal. For a landscape and visual assessment that distinction decides which receptors you assess, how sensitive you say they are, and whether the consultee response accepts your viewpoint selection or asks you to start again.

Start with the statutory record, then use the online layers for convenience. Doing it the other way round is how footpaths get missed.

The definitive map and statement as the legal record

Part III of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 requires every surveying authority, which is the county council or the unitary authority, to keep a definitive map and statement under continuous review under section 53. The map shows the line, the statement describes the route, its width where recorded, and any limitations such as gates or stiles.

Four categories appear on it. Public footpaths carry a right on foot. Bridleways add horse and pedal cycle. Restricted byways, created by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, add non-mechanically propelled vehicles. Byways open to all traffic carry vehicular rights as well.

The statement matters as much as the map for visual work, because a recorded width of three metres across an open field produces a different receptor experience from an enclosed path between hedges. Request both. Most authorities will supply an extract for a fee, and some publish the digitised map with a disclaimer that it is not the legal record.

Checking online layers against the record

Council web maps, national open datasets and commercial mapping all derive from the definitive record at some point, and all of them drift. Routes recorded by a definitive map modification order after the last data refresh will not appear. Diverted routes sometimes show both alignments. Paths on the boundary between two surveying authorities are a recurring gap.

A practical check is to compare three sources for the site and a buffer around it: the authority's own online layer, current Ordnance Survey mapping, and the extract you have requested. Where they disagree, write to the rights of way team and quote the path numbers. Their reply becomes part of the assessment record and settles the point if it is raised later.

If a path crosses the site itself rather than passing nearby, the layout consequences are a separate question covered in public rights of way across a development site.

Selecting viewpoints from the network

GLVIA3 asks for viewpoints that represent the range of visual receptors, not a gallery of the least damaging angles. The path network gives you defensible, repeatable locations, because a stile or a gate is a fixed point anyone can stand on.

Work outwards from the site and select for four things: the closest point of approach on each path, the point of longest duration of view where a route runs parallel to the site, the point where the site first comes into view along a route, and any point where the path intersects a promoted or long distance route. Record grid references, camera height, focal length and date for each.

Zone of theoretical visibility modelling helps decide which paths to visit, but it is a screening tool. Bare earth terrain models ignore hedges, walls and buildings, so a path shown as having full visibility may in fact be screened by a mature boundary. Walk the ones that matter.

Permissive paths and promoted routes

Permissive paths carry no public right, are usually created by agreement with the landowner, and can be withdrawn. They still generate receptors, because people use them and the assessment is about visual effect rather than legal status. Note their status accurately: claiming a permissive route as a public path invites a correction.

Promoted routes attract different treatment. National trails, regional recreational routes, circular walks promoted by the authority and any route carried in a local plan policy will be treated as higher sensitivity by the landscape officer, because the purpose of the journey is the view. Check the local plan and the council's countryside pages for named routes before you finalise the receptor schedule.

Diversion and stopping up orders

Where a scheme needs a path to move, two routes exist and they are not interchangeable.

Section 257 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 lets the local planning authority make an order diverting or stopping up a footpath, bridleway or restricted byway where it is necessary to enable development that has been, or is to be, granted permission. The test is necessity for the development, and the order is normally made after permission is granted.

Sections 118 and 119 of the Highways Act 1980 provide the general extinguishment and diversion powers, exercised on grounds of the route no longer being needed, or the interests of the landowner or the public. These are used where no development consent is in play.

Either way the order has to be advertised, objections can be made, and an unresolved objection sends the order to the Planning Inspectorate. Programme it properly. A diversion order that attracts objections can take many months, and building across a route before the order is confirmed is an offence.

Recording receptor sensitivity

GLVIA3 asks for susceptibility to change and value of the receptor, combined into sensitivity. Walkers on a public right of way are usually treated as having high susceptibility, because their attention is directed to the surroundings. Value is where you have to be evidence based rather than generous.

Set out the reasoning for each route: its status on the definitive map, whether it is promoted or named in the development plan, whether it lies within a designated landscape, the character of the views it offers and any evidence of use. Then state sensitivity, and accept that a short link path between two housing estates is not the same receptor as a ridge top bridleway inside a National Landscape.

Keep the judgement and the description separate in the text. Consultees and inspectors read the reasoning, and a table that jumps from path number to "high" with nothing in between gets little weight. The same discipline applies to the settings work in a Townscape and Visual Impact Assessment.

Routes added recently or under claim

An unrecorded route can still be a public right of way. Anyone can apply for a definitive map modification order, and surveying authorities hold registers of pending applications that are worth checking directly, since they rarely appear on public map layers.

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 provided for a cut-off date after which certain unrecorded pre-1949 rights would be extinguished. Its commencement has been revisited more than once, so confirm the current position with Defra or the surveying authority rather than assuming an unrecorded historic route has lapsed. Where a claim is pending across the site, say so in the assessment and treat the route as a potential receptor.

A Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment drafted with the path schedule already built gives the landscape architect a working base rather than a blank page. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a site of this kind usually needs. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.