Part 12: Miscellaneous Section 236: Open access mapping Background
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CROW) gives the public a right of access to most mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land, collectively known as ‘open access land’. CROW also sets out limitations on what activities can be carried out on open access land and makes provisions for some types of land (for example arable) to be automatically excepted from the rights. Where there is a conflict between the land’s use and public access, formal directions to exclude or restrict access can be made.
	Open access rights flow from official maps that constitute the legal record of such areas. Where open access rights apply, they allow people to wander freely over the land in question rather than being confined to linear paths.
	Eight ‘conclusive maps’ were produced for this purpose by the Countryside Agency for different regions of England and published during 2004 and 2005. Natural England (NE) currently has a statutory duty to review the conclusive maps in their entirety every 20 years. This is a large undertaking which is in the main unnecessary, as much of Open Access land was mapped correctly the first time. There were, however, some mistakes made during the initial mapping process and a first review of these areas is required to establish an accurate baseline.