A brief guide to restrictions on CRoW access land
How may access to CRoW access land be restricted?
The Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CRoW) provides a right of access to mapped areas of mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land.
This right may at times be restricted. However, restrictions on access land do not affect existing public rights of way. Where there are restrictions on access land you still have a legal right to use public rights of way on the land.
The CRoW Act sets out some general restrictions on the right of access to open countryside. For example, dogs must be kept on short fixed leads of not more than 2 metres between the 1st of March and 31st of July and at any time near livestock.
In the Act there is a list of general restrictions to the right of access. For example, activities such as lighting fires, driving a vehicle, horseriding and camping are not permitted. However, as in the past, a landowner may give permission for any of these activities on their land, and may also withdraw that permission without notice.
In addition to these general restrictions, there are three ways in which access to open country can be restricted:
The full text of The Countryside and Rights of Way 2000 can be found on the web-site of The Office of Public Sector Information. www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000037.htm