Open Access Land

Open Access has commenced
The right of public access to 'Access Land' began in Shropshire and the West of England on the 31 October 2005.

What is Open Access Land?
Part 1 of the Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act 2000 has created a new right to walk on 'access land' for the purpose of open-air recreation.

Members of the public are now able to walk, climb, bird-watch, sightsee, picnic and run on land where they see the access symbol. The symbol has been installed at the boundary of access land.

Access Land consists of areas of Open Country and Registered Common Land.

• Open Country (OC) is defined as being an area comprising wholly or predominantly of Mountain, Moor, Heath or Down.
• Registered Common Land (RCL) is land recorded on the Commons Register held by the County and City authorities under the Commons Registration Act 1965.

In Shropshire we have 6998 hectares of Open Country and Registered Common Land, which makes up 2.2% of the total land area of the County. Of this:

• 2277.5 hectares is Open Country
• 4720.5 hectares is Registered Common Land

Private land dedicated as Open Access
Private landowners also have the opportunity to dedicate their land as Open Access under Section 16 of the CRoW Act 2000.

Shropshire County Council are the first local authority in the country to dedicate their own sites under Section 16, with 8Countryside Heritage Sites, covering 184 hectares now being dedicated.

The Forestry Commission have also taken the lead and have dedicated over 3000 hectares of woodland in the county.