‘We risk losing thousands of miles of public highways’: The battle for Britain’s footpaths

The race is on between landowners, the aristocracy and campaigners to consolidate rights to contested land

For decades, members of the public in Kintbury, Berkshire, enjoyed a happy right of way on the lane approaching the Barton Court estate. The 145-acre property’s previous owner, the design mogul Sir Terence Conran, did not mind visitors crossing his land.
That has all changed. The estate’s current owners, James Matthews and Pippa Middleton, the Princess of Wales’ sister, have put up a gate and signs saying “Private: No Public Access” and “No Trespassing”. After moving into the property two years ago, in March of this year, Mr Matthews submitted a “highway declaration notice” to the West Berkshire Council, stating that the road was no longer accessible. He did so in response to an attempt by Eugene Futcher, chairman of the West Berkshire Ramblers, to have a public right of access declared using a “definitive map modification order” (DMMO).
“There is evidence through witness statements of the public having had access to this lane going back to the 1960s,” Mr Futcher told The Telegraph. “There has been unfettered public access for decades, if not centuries. 
“The 1981 agriculture act stipulates that if it can be proved that a path has been used for 20 years or more, it can be claimed as a public right of way,” he added. Mr Matthews was approached for comment.
Although the Royal connections ensure that the Barton Court case will attract attention, it is only one of a growing number of rights of way disputes brewing around the country. DMMOs have become a fraught topic since Therese Coffey reinstated a deadline for all rights of way in England to be added to the so-called “Definitive Map,” a county-by-county breakdown of rights of way.
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000) introduced a provision that historic rights of way – any dating back pre-1949 – would have to be registered by 2026, or they would cease to carry public rights. In 2022, the deadline was cancelled, after pressure from right-to-roam campaigners. But it was reinstated by Coffey the following year with a new deadline of 2031.
Some campaigners fear the cut-off could lead to the loss of thousands of miles of historic paths. “The idea was to get everything up to date, as a sort of Domesday Book of all the historic routes,” says Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society. “It was never intended to affect routes people were using. The whole idea was that paths in use would continue as before.”
When the cut-off was reinstated, however, it was without a proper list of exceptions. 
“It’s really frightening,” says Ashbrook. “They introduced the cut-off without introducing the exceptions to say which rights are not going to be ended. The risk of leaving everything as it is [with the cut-off] is that we will lose thousands of miles of public highways on the 1st January 2031 because they haven’t been claimed.” 
A Freedom of Information request by the BBC in August found that as of March 2024, there were still nearly 8,000 outstanding requests with councils for rights of way to be registered. (The Ramblers, a pro-walking charity, estimates that it is more than 10,000.) Lincolnshire County Council alone had 458 outstanding applications, the most of any council, with some dating back to the 1980s. Between 2019 and 2024, councils processed less than a third of the DMMO applications they received.
Jack Cornish, head of paths at The Ramblers, says the key is presenting compelling evidence. “When an authority is looking at an application, they’re judging it on the balance of possibilities,” he says. “If the public have used the path in the past or created rights to use the path through 20 years’ usage, they should be signing up and making the order for that path to be added to the map. Obviously we get some challenges from individual landowners, but we feel we are making good applications for paths that are required and will make a big difference. And if they are challenged we will help our volunteers make the best case possible.”
One case where the Ramblers made a meaningful difference was at Castle Acre, Norfolk, where there Nar Valley Way went past a house on an unrecorded footpath. In 2020, a new owner closed off the path with a fence covered in anti-climb paint. A local Ramblers member, Ian Mitchell, applied to add it to the definitive map. The owner objected. Mitchell proved, using maps dating back to the 16th century as well as testimony of more recent usage, that it was a historic path and it was added to the list.
Still, path disputes continue elsewhere around the country, many of them related to DMMO applications. In another, ongoing case in Norfolk, a couple are appealing a ruling by the council that a long-lost footpath runs through their land and must be protected as a public right of way. John and Ann Scott moved to Thompson, near Thetford Forest, more than 20 years ago. But a row began in 2013 when a villager claimed that a footpath had crossed the property in the past. Norfolk County Council agreed. The planning inspectorate launched an inquiry, eventually making an interim finding that there should be a path across the land. The couple appealed, and maintain that their garden is “strictly private”, putting an advert in the parish magazine to discourage visitors. 
Last month, reports from Bristol suggested that historic footpaths across the city were at risk of being lost if they were not registered for the definitive map. There are 16 DDMO requests open with Bristol City Council, one dating back to 1998, that have not been resolved.
But two decades is small potatoes when it comes to some path disputes. A report in August showed that a row over a footpath in County Durham has been raging for more than a century. Staindrop parish councillors argue that a footpath on North Green belongs to Raby Estates and it is not a public right of way but a permissive footpath, which means they have no obligation to uphold it. According to the Teesdale Mercury, Cllr Roger Humphries, citing a map from 1894, said it was “screamingly obvious” that the path was the responsibility of the council. 
As such examples show, right-of-way disputes can be found the length and breadth of the country. They are curiously British flashpoints where titbits of local history collide with council policy, property rights and hiking enthusiasts.
Certainly, for those involved, the stakes are high. And with 2031 looming ever closer, campaigners argue that insufficient resources are currently being dedicated to evaluating which paths to protect. They say this means well-trodden paths could be lost, and have called for the deadline to be scrapped. 
However, others believe a definitive list will give clarity to landowners and rural businesses about who has access to their lands
“Maintaining a cut-off date for historic right of way applications is a positive step for land managers in England,” said the Country Land and Business Association president Mark Tufnell, at the time the cut-off was reinstated by Coffey. “The current process has left rural businesses in limbo, with the potential of a claim hanging over every landowner indefinitely.”
There are 140,00 miles of footpaths in England and Wales. But the public only has “open access” to about eight per cent of the land in England, which includes common land, National Trust properties, coastline and national parks. Research in 2019 found that half of England is owned by less than one per cent of the population. 
Right-to-roam campaigners would like England, Wales and Northern Ireland to be brought more into line with Scotland, where there is a “right of responsible access” that covers most of the landscape, except for private gardens, industrial areas, and farmed fields (although the edges are alright.)
There are two main arguments for saving the historic paths, says Cornish. “One is that having more paths and recorded public rights of way means people being able to access nature, the physical and mental benefits that come with walking or cycling. 
“We commissioned some research which shows our existing rights of way network brings £2 billion a year in value. The other side of it is that our path network is part of our history. We need it protected and recorded.”
Ramblers will be keeping a keen eye on what happens at Barton Court. The right-of-way debate speaks to a deeper tension in English history, about who owns the land, and who has rights over it. Tensions will flare again. There are seven years until the 2031 cut-off. It might seem a long time for a council dispute, but it is the blink of an eye for a good path.