Landowner responsibilities and assistance
As a landowner you are responsible for ensuring access is available to the public rights of way on your land. This includes making sure they are clear of crops, overhanging vegetation and obstructions (including unauthorised structures such as stiles and gates) as well as maintaining authorised structures.
You need to get permission from us to put in any new structure across a right of way but not to make repairs to an existing structure.
We are responsible for the surface of a right of way, and sometimes your operations or activities can cause damage to a right of way. In such circumstances we will seek a repair or that our costs of works to repair a right of way are covered by you.
We may also consult you on erecting signs on either existing posts if appropriate, or by installing new posts on your property to correctly identify the route of a right of way.
Help maintaining rights of way on your land
We provide a minimum of 25% of the costs incurred in replacing or repairing lawful stiles and gates, usually by providing the materials. Please discuss this before carrying out works if possible as we may be able to assist further – for example: we aim to replace stiles with gates where practical, and if you agree to replace a stile with a gate we will usually cover the entire cost – even the installation.