Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that Councillor J A Raynor be elected Chair for the 2014/2015 Municipal Year.

 

(Councillor J A Raynor, Chair presided)

RESOLVED that Councillor R V Smith be elected Vice-Chair for the

2014/2015 Municipal Year.

 

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J A Hale, P M Meara

and C Richards.

 

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City and County of

Swansea, no interests were declared.

 

To approve and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the Meeting of the Rights of Way and Commons Sub Committee held on 23 April 2014.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting of the Rights of Way and

Commons Sub-Committee held on 23 April 2014 be agreed as a correct

record.

 

The Transport Strategy Officer provided a report which presented an update

on the works associated with the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013.  It was

outlined that the legislation contained three principle requirements to which

local authorities must conform.  Firstly, that a local authority will provide a map

of currently available Active Travel Routes.  The routes contained in the map

must either conform to the active travel standard or where it provides a link to

a key service such as schools, hospitals, places of employment and/or retail.

The maps will cover all communities with a population of 2,000 or greater and

the communities considered to conform to this threshold have been identified

by the Welsh Government in a consultation document published in November

2013.  Whilst the local authorities are now awaiting the outcome of this

consultation and a formal list of communities, it is expected that largely the

whole of the City and County of Swansea area will be included, with the

possible exclusion of Gower.

 

Secondly, the legislation required that the Local Authority will prepare a

second map which sets out all the programmes anticipated Active Travel

Schemes which may be delivered over the next five years (2014-2018).

These routes also need to be publicly accessible but does not need to be

published in hard form and can therefore be presented electronically if

appropriate. 

 

Thirdly, the Act is to make good progress against realising the elements

defined in the second map to ensure that the routes are continually improved

and built upon.  This does not therefore require simply that the new routes will

be constructed each year but that the network will be improved in some way.

It was added that whilst these are the principle requirements of the Act, there

is also a further significant implication as the Act also interfaces directly with

the Highways Act and principally with section 3, 4, 9 and 12.  These sections

deal with the “creation”, “improvement”, “maintenance” and “interference” of

the highway and require that when any works are undertaken that

consideration be given as to how measures which promote active travel could

be incorporated.

 

It was explained that the Welsh Government is currently preparing a draft

guidance document to advise on the Active Travel (Wales) Act standard

infrastructure.  The guidance will therefore describe best practice and the

forms of route which are required in order to conform to the expectations of

the Act.  The draft guidance document was made available in May 2014 and

will be subject to a 12 week public consultation prior to being revised and

formally published in the Autumn of 2014.

 

The Committee asked a number of questions of the officer who responded

accordingly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

RESOLVED that:

 

(1)	the contents of the report be noted;
(2)	a web link to the Welsh Government webpage be circulated to the Committee.

 

 

The Head of Legal, Democratic Services and Procurement presented a For

Information Report informing the Committee of the proposal to hold a non

statutory inquiry.  It was outlined that the Council had received an application

made by Mrs Margaret E. Boyter under Section 15(2) of the Commons Act

1996 in respect of land known locally as the Green, access off Y Llwyni,

Llangyfelach, Swansea.  The application sought to register the land as a town

or village green and a plan of the land was provided at Appendix 1 of the

report.

 

It was added that the land was predominantly owned by the Council and the

Council had made an objection to the application.  The Head of Legal,

Democratic Services and Procurement had used his delegated authority

granted by the Committee on 15 February 2012 to instruct Counsel to advise

on the application and the appropriate procedure to adopt in determining the

application.  Counsel had advised that there were issues of fact and law in

dispute and it would be appropriate to hold a non statutory inquiry.  The

holding of such an inquiry would ensure that evidence from both the applicant

and the objectors can be heard and tested and the issues examined and

argued over.  Once the inquiry had taken place, Counsel will issue a report

with recommendations for this Committee to consider and make a decision. 

 

The Head of Legal, Democratic Services and Procurement presented a report

which sought to determine the application as required by the provisions of the

Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. 

 

It was outlined that an application was submitted on 3 March 2013 to register

a 50 m length of path which passes alongside the Canaan Congregational

Chapel which closed in the same month.  Plan number 1 of the report showed

the length concerned between points A and B.  The claim was initially

supported by eight people, who apart from two, alleged use in excess of 20

years.  On 7 November 2013 a further six users’ evidence forms were

submitted, each signatory having alleged a minimum of 20 years use.  All the

usual individuals and organisations had been consulted and one objection

had been made by the person who converted the former New Inn public

house into a residential property, which is situated immediately to the west

and adjacent to the path.  That development closed the path with two balls at

either end of the path, although the path is not shown in the Land Registry

and to date no one has provided any proof of title.

 

The Committee were provided with the grounds for recognising the path as a

public right of way, the evidence, the routes claimed, the evidence against the

application and the distribution of claimants/specialist user groups. 

 

In the absence of any counter evidence, it was clear that the path had been in

use for the period of 1993-2013 and that the use is uninterrupted.  Whilst the

majority of those who made use of the path do live in the relatively confined

area, there are a contingent who do not.  Consequently, the test as to whether

it is reasonable to allege a public path exists via the route A-B-C the public

right of way can be satisfied.

 

RESOLVED that a Modification Order be made.

 

The Head of Legal, Democratic Services and Procurement presented a report

which sought to amend the previous report submitted to the Sub-Committee

on 26 February 2014.  It was explained that at the meeting on 26 February

2014 it was noted that some of the text in the report under the heading “the

possible existence of a public path via G-F” did not correspond to the letters

on plan number 3.  It was therefore decided that an amended report should be

submitted and include the required changes in full.

 

It was noted that the Ward Member had received the report and had made no

further comment. 

 

RESOLVED that the amendments to the report be noted and agreed.

 

The Head of Economic Development and Planning presented a For

Information Report which informed the Committee about the sources of

funding available for work on public rights of way and countryside access. 

 

It was outlined that the report considered the resources available for works to

improve and maintain the 400 miles of public rights of way and other public

access in the City and County of Swansea.  The funds available for the

current financial year were outlined as follows:

 

Authority	£43,000
Coast Path Grant (100%)	£44,000
ROWIP Grant (Countryside Access Plan) (100%)	£37,000
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) Grant (50%)	£6,750
Gower Society Grant (50%)	£8,000
RDP (100%)	£10,000
TOTAL:	£148,750

 

It was added that the Authority’s funds were slightly less than the previous

financial year.  The Authority’s £43,000 is used for maintenance, as funding

from grants can only be used for improvements.  The Coast Path Grant was

offered this year for specific storm damage repairs.  The ROWIP Grant and

NRW Grant are fixed amounts offered each year, although both are gradually

declining.  Both grants are tied to actions in the Authority’s Countryside

Access Plan (ROWIP).  The funding for both the Coast Path and ROWIP is

from Welsh Government, but is administered and distributed by NRW.  A

Gower Society Grant of £3,000 will be available for the foreseeable future,

subject to agreement with the Gower Society.  Additional Gower Society funds

are also available for larger individual projects.  The RDP Grant ends this year

with future funding uncertain at present.  This round of RDP funding had only

been available in Mawr and Pontarddulais, but if continued it may be available

in all of the rural areas of the City and County of Swansea.  In addition to the

above funds, the Authority employed a two man Ranger Team to maintain the

Public Rights of Way Network.  The annual running costs of the Ranger Team

is £58,000.  The Rangers have worked exclusively for the Countryside Access

Team since 2002. 

 

Since 1996, the funds available for the Public Path Network had varied

considerably and were dependent on what sources of funding were available

as outlined in the chart contained in the Appendix of the report.  In 2002, the

UK Government provided extra funds to all authorities to carry out the

additional duties under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.  Some of

this additional funding was added to the existing Authority Revenue Budget

and some was kept separate as a “CROW” Budget although in practice both

budgets were used to carry out improvements to and maintenance of public

paths.  Hence the last financial year the CROW Budget was added to the

Revenue Budget.

 

 

The Committee asked a number of questions of the officer who responded

accordingly.  The Chair requested further information be provided with

regards to the management of grants for the Authority. 

 

RESOLVED that:

 

(1)	the contents of the report be noted;
(2)	details regarding the management of grants within the Authority be provided at the next meeting.

 

NOTED that the next meeting is scheduled for 2.00 p.m. on Wednesday 13

August 2014.