One of the principles of CRoW is that some land, although it may qualify as either open country (according to the Countryside Agency's mapping methodology) or registered common land (under the Commons Registration Act 1965), will not be subject to the right of access. This is because there are a number of categories of what is called 'excepted' land.
The full list of 'excepted' land categories is contained in Schedule 1 of CRoW and is as follows:
- Land on which the soil is being, or has at any time within the previous twelve months been, disturbed by any ploughing or drilling undertaken for the purposes of planting or sowing crops or trees.
- Land covered by buildings or the curtilage of such land.
- Land within 20 metres of a dwelling.
- Land used as a park or garden.
- Land used for the getting of minerals by surface working (including quarrying).
- Land used for the purposes of a railway (including a light railway) or tramway.
- Land used for the purposes of a golf course, racecourse or aerodrome.
- Land which does not fall within any of the preceding paragraphs and is covered by works used for the purposes of a statutory undertaking or a telecommunications code system, or the curtilage of any such land.
- Land as respects which development which will result in the land becoming land falling within any of paragraphs 2 to 8 is in the course of being carried out.
- Land within 20 metres of a building which is used for housing livestock, not being a temporary or moveable structure.
- Land covered by pens in use for the temporary reception or detention of livestock.
- Land habitually used for the training of racehorses.
- Land the use of which is regulated by byelaws under section 14 of the Military Lands Act 1892 or section 2 of the Military Lands Act 1900.
It is important to remember that any land that meets any of these criteria (and is either open country or registered common land) will be shown no differently to other open country or registered common on the conclusive maps.
Equally important is that Ordnance Survey will only identify three types of 'excepted' land on their revised Explorer maps. These are land subject to military byelaws, aerodromes and racecourses, which will not be shown as access land. The effect of this is that the other categories of 'excepted' land will appear as access land on the Explorer maps - it is therefore worth being familiar with the principle of 'excepted' land.
