Which reports a scheme with a public right of way needs

A recorded public right of way crossing a development site is a highway, and planning permission gives you no authority whatsoever to obstruct it. That single point governs everything else. The public right of way planning reports a scheme needs sit alongside a separate order-making process under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 or the Highways Act 1980, and the order usually controls the start on site rather than the planning permission.

Build across a footpath without an order in place and you have obstructed a highway, which is an offence, and the authority can require the obstruction removed whatever your permission says.

Checking the definitive map

The definitive map and statement, maintained by the surveying authority under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, is the legal record. The surveying authority is the county council or the unitary authority, and its rights of way team holds it.

Four categories of recorded route exist and each carries different rights.

Footpath, on foot only.

Bridleway, on foot, on horseback and by bicycle.

Restricted byway, on foot, on horseback, by bicycle and by non-mechanically propelled vehicle.

Byway open to all traffic, all of the above plus motor vehicles.

Two complications arise often enough to plan for. The definitive statement sometimes records a width and sometimes does not, and where it does not, the width is a question of evidence rather than a number you can pick. And the route on the ground is frequently not the route on the map, because walkers have taken an easier line for 40 years. The legal route is the mapped one.

Order a definitive map search early and ask specifically whether any application to add or modify a route affects the land, because an outstanding definitive map modification order application can sit on a site for years without appearing anywhere else.

Obstruct, divert or stop up

Decide which of these the scheme does, because the answer picks the legal route.

Section 257 is the route most development uses. It allows an authority to make an order stopping up or diverting a footpath, bridleway or restricted byway where it is necessary to do so to enable development to be carried out in accordance with a planning permission that has been granted.

The words "has been granted" are the programme problem. In most cases the permission has to exist before the order can be made, so the order process runs after determination rather than alongside it.

Timing, and the objection risk

An uncontested section 257 order takes a few months: the authority makes the order, advertises it on site and in a local newspaper, serves notice on the prescribed consultees, and if no objections are received it can confirm the order itself.

If objections are received and not withdrawn, the authority cannot confirm its own order. It goes to the Secretary of State, which in practice means the Planning Inspectorate, and is determined by written representations, a hearing or an inquiry. That adds many months and, on a contested rural route, can add more than a year.

Who objects, predictably: the Ramblers and other user groups, the parish council, the local access forum, and individual users. Their grounds are almost always about the quality of the replacement route rather than the principle, which is useful information for the design.

Three ways to reduce the risk.

Design a replacement route that is plainly as good or better: similar length, sensible gradients, a pleasant alignment, not a corridor between two fences.

Engage the rights of way officer and the local access forum before the planning application, not after permission.

Avoid the need for an order altogether where the layout can retain the route, which is often possible on a larger site at the cost of one plot.

Layout changes that keep the route

Retaining a path usually costs less and takes less time than diverting it, and it earns credit in the design and sustainability narrative.

The moves that work are consistent. Run the route through public open space or a green corridor rather than between rear garden fences. Give it a defensible edge with active frontage overlooking it, because a path with blank boundaries on both sides becomes a management problem. Keep the surface and width suitable for the recorded category, which for a bridleway means a bound or well drained surface wide enough for a horse and a cyclist to pass. Light it where it becomes an urban route and leave it unlit where it stays rural and crosses ecologically sensitive ground.

A lighting assessment is the document that reconciles those last two, and the guidance councils cite on obtrusive light applies to path lighting as much as to car parks.

Where the route forms part of the open space provision, an open space assessment should treat it as linear open space with its own maintenance regime rather than folding it into a general figure.

Ecology and hedgerows along the route

Old paths follow old boundaries, which means hedgerows, mature trees and ditches. Three consequences.

Hedgerow removal to widen or realign a route may need a notice under the hedgerow regulations, and an important hedgerow cannot be removed without the authority's agreement. Check this before assuming a gap can be made.

Breeding birds occupy hedgerows between March and August, so clearance timing is constrained and a condition will usually say so.

Bats commute along linear features, so lighting a formerly dark path is an ecological change as well as a design one. A preliminary ecological appraisal should scope this explicitly rather than treating the route as a blank line on the plan.

The submission contents

On a site crossed by a recorded route, expect to produce the following alongside the standard pack.

A plan showing the recorded route, its category and its width where recorded, overlaid on the proposed layout.

A statement explaining whether the scheme retains, diverts or stops up the route, and if an order is needed, which provision is relied on and what stage it has reached.

A plan and description of any replacement route, with lengths, surfacing, widths, gradients and crossing points.

A transport statement or transport assessment dealing with the route as part of the walking and cycling network, including crossings of estate roads.

The ecological appraisal, lighting assessment and arboricultural material relevant to the corridor.

A construction management plan addressing how the route is kept open, or lawfully closed under a temporary closure order, during the works.

That last item is the one most often missed. A temporary closure during construction is a separate application to the highway authority with its own notice period, and site compounds have a habit of landing on footpaths before anyone has applied for it.

Start the rights of way conversation at pre-application stage. It is the item on this type of site most likely to move the start on site by a year.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority, the surveying authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.