Commentary on Sections Schedule 2: Modification or discharge of affordable housing requirements: related amendments Section 13: Declarations negativing intention to dedicate way as highway
68.Section 31(6) of the Highways Act 1980 allows for a landowner to deposit a map and statement with the highway authority, showing admitted public paths, and a declaration that the landowner has no intention to allow any other part of the land to become subject to a public right of way.
69.This section amends section 31 to allow the Secretary of State to make regulations prescribing: (i) the form of such statements, maps and declarations with the aim of minimising the administrative burden on landowners who wish to make such statements at the same time as statements are made to protect land from registration as a town or village green under section 15 of the Commons Act 2006; and (ii) fees to be levied in relation to the deposit of a map and statement and the lodging of a declaration (including for a fee payable under the regulations to be determined by the appropriate council).
70.Section 13, by amending section 31 of the Highways Act 1980, allows the Secretary of State to prescribe in regulations the steps an appropriate council must take in relation to a map, statement, or declaration deposited with it, as well as the manner and period in which such steps must be completed. Section 13 also amends section 31 of that Act to extend the period for renewing declarations from ten to twenty years. Section 13 contains a restatement of the existing law applicable to Wales. It does not amend the law applicable to Wales.