BAILII is celebrating 24 years of free online access to the law! Would you consider making a contribution?

No donation is too small. If every visitor before 31 December gives just £1, it will have a significant impact on BAILII's ability to continue providing free access to the law.
Thank you very much for your support!



BAILII [Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback]

Statutory Instruments made by the National Assembly for Wales


You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Statutory Instruments made by the National Assembly for Wales >> The Countryside Access (Dedication of Land as Access Land) (Wales) Regulations 2003 No. 135 (W.9)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/wales/legis/num_reg/2003/20030135e.html

[New search] [Help]



STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS


2003 No. 135 (W.9)

COUNTRYSIDE, WALES

The Countryside Access (Dedication of Land as Access Land) (Wales) Regulations 2003

  Made 28th January 2003 
  Coming into force 1st March 2003 

The National Assembly for Wales ("the National Assembly") makes the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred on it under sections 16 and 44 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000[1] and all other powers enabling it in that behalf:

Citation, commencement and application
     1.  - (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Countryside Access (Dedication of Land as Access Land) (Wales) Regulations 2003 and come into force on 1st March 2003.

    (2) These Regulations apply to Wales.

Interpretation
    
2.  - (1) In these Regulations:

Form and content of dedication instruments
     3. A dedication instrument must:

Execution of a dedication instrument
    
4.  - (1) A dedication instrument is executed by being:

    (2) If a person signs a dedication instrument on behalf of a person who is making the declaration, the signature must be preceded by a statement identifying the person on whose behalf the dedication instrument is being signed and a declaration that the person who is signing the dedication instrument is authorised to do so on behalf of that person.

    (3) The date referred to in paragraph (1)(b) is, for the purposes of these Regulations, the date of execution of the dedication instrument.

    (4) A dedication instrument may not be signed by any person pursuant to paragraph (1) unless a draft of the instrument was sent, so as to be received in every case not less than 3 months before it is so signed, to each of the following:

Effect of dedication instruments
    
5.  - (1) Subject to paragraph (3), a dedication instrument which has been executed in accordance with regulation 4 comes into force 6 months from its date of execution.

    (2) A dedication instrument, when it has come into force in accordance with paragraph (1), has the effect of dedicating the land to which it relates for the purposes of Part I of the Act.

    (3) A dedication instrument does not come into force unless it has, in accordance with paragraph (4), been lodged with the access authority in respect of the land to which it relates, or if there is more than one such access authority, with one of them.

    (4) A dedication instrument is lodged with an access authority by sending or delivering the original to that authority so that it is received by the access authority within 1 month of its date of execution and any dedication instrument received by an access authority after the expiry of that period is of no effect.

    (5) In the event of an access authority receiving a dedication instrument after the expiry of the period referred to in paragraph (4), it must immediately inform each of the persons identified in it as the persons dedicating the land to which it relates that, by reason of a failure to lodge the dedication instrument within the period referred to in paragraph (4), it is of no effect.

Notification of the lodging of a dedication instrument
    
6.  - (1) The persons by or on whose behalf a dedication instrument has been signed must ensure that as soon as possible after it is lodged with an access authority in accordance with regulation 5, copies are sent to each of the bodies or persons referred to in regulation 4(4)(a) to (e) (other than the access authority with whom the dedication instrument was lodged pursuant to regulation 5), and that each copy is accompanied by a statement identifying the access authority with whom the dedication instrument has been lodged and the date when it was so lodged.

    (2) A failure to comply with the requirements of this regulation does not affect the validity of a dedication instrument.

Removal or relaxation of restrictions on dedicated land
    
7.  - (1) Where a dedication instrument contains a statement pursuant to paragraph (j) of regulation 3, the general restrictions to be observed by persons exercising the right of access set out in paragraph 1, 4 or 5 of Schedule 2 to the Act apply subject to any removal or relaxation specified in the declaration pursuant to that paragraph.

    (2) Where any person or persons could, in relation to any land to which a dedication instrument relates, dedicate that land (had it not already been dedicated) under section 16(1) of the Act, they may remove any such general restrictions as continue to apply in relation to that land, or relax or further relax them, as the case may be, by an amending dedication instrument.

    (3) Subject to paragraphs (4) to (7), the provisions of these Regulations apply to amending dedication instruments as they apply to dedication instruments.

    (4) Paragraph (b) of regulation 3 applies to an amending dedication instrument as if the reference to the statement required were a reference to a statement that it is made in accordance with paragraph (2) of this regualtion and that its effect, when it comes into force in accordance with regulation 5 of these Regulations, will be that certain of the general restrictions to be observed by persons exercising access to the land to which it relates will be removed, relaxed or further relaxed in accordance with the terms of the amending dedication instrument.

    (5) Paragraphs (g), (h) and (k) of regulation 3 do not apply to an amending dedication instrument.

    (6) References in these Regulations to land to be dedicated are to be construed, in relation to an amending dedication instrument, as references to the land in relation to which the general restrictions to be observed by persons exercising access to that land are to be removed, relaxed or further relaxed.

    (7) The reference in regulation 5(2) to the effect of a dedication instrument when it comes into force is to be construed, in relation to an amending dedication instrument, as a reference to the taking effect of the removal, relaxation or further relaxation of the general restrictions to be observed by persons exercising access to land which are set out in the instrument.

Use of electronic communication
    
8.  - (1) Subject to paragraph (2), any document required or authorised to be sent by one person to another under the provisions of these Regulations may be sent by post or by means of electronic communication and any reference in these Regulations, however expressed, to writing, other than the reference in regulation (3)(a), is to be construed as including a reference to a form capable of being stored on, transmitted to and from, and read by means of a computer.

    (2) A dedication instrument may not be lodged with an access authority in accordance with regulation 5(4) by means of an electronic communication.



Signed on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales under section 66(1) of the Government of Wales Act 1998[
3]


D. Elis-Thomas
The Presiding Officer of the National Assembly

28th January 2003



EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)


Section 16 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 ("the Act") enables a person who holds an interest in land (being a freehold interest or a leasehold interest of which not less than 90 years remain unexpired) to dedicate that land as "access land" for the purposes of Part I of the Act.

Land dedicated under section 16 of the Act will be subject to the public right of access in the same way as if the land had been included in a map prepared by the Countryside Council for Wales ("the Council") under Part I of the Act and will be subject to the same general restrictions (set out in Schedule 2 to the Act), except to the extent that those who dedicate the land remove or relax those restrictions by the terms of the dedication.

Under section 16 of the Act, the National Assembly for Wales ("the National Assembly") may prescribe the steps to be taken in order to dedicate land as access land.

Regulation 3 prescribes the form and content of the written instrument which must be executed in order to dedicate land, including what it must contain in order to identify the land to which it relates, the persons dedicating it, the other persons who, by reason of their interest in the land, consent to the dedication, and the extent of any removal or relaxation of general restrictions to be observed by persons exercising access right to it.

Regulation 4 prescribes how a dedication instrument is to be executed and requires those who do so to have given 3 months' notice to various bodies who are likely to have an interest in the proposal to dedicate the land before doing so.

Regulation 5 requires a dedication instrument, if it is to be effective, to be lodged within one month of being executed with the access authority for the land to which it relates (or one of them if there is more than one) and for the dedication to come into force six months after the execution of the dedication instrument.

Regulation 6 provides for copies of the dedication instrument to be sent to interested bodies other than the access authority with whom it has been lodged.

Regulation 7 provides for the removal or relaxation of general restrictions on access to take effect in accordance with the terms of a dedication instrument and for further removals or relaxations by means of an amending dedication instrument.

Regulation 8 provides for the use of electronic communication.


Notes:

[1] 2000 c.37. Section 16(1) and 16(2) provide for steps to be "prescribed". Section 16(6) provides for regulations to be made for certain purposes. "Prescribed" means prescribed by regulations and "regulations" means, as respects Wales, regulations made by the National Assembly for Wales (see section 45(1)).back

[2] 2000 c.7.back

[3] 1998 c.38.back



Cymraeg (Welsh)



ISBN 0 11090652 7


 
© Crown copyright 2003
Prepared 4 March 2003


BAILII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Donate to BAILII
URL: http://www.bailii.org/wales/legis/num_reg/2003/20030135e.html