Public Rights of Way
Public Rights of Way give a right of access for members of the
public over land in private ownership, either on foot if a Public
Footpath, on horseback or bicycle if a Public Bridleway, or in a
vehicle.
There are approximately 550 km of Public Rights of Way in the
Vale of Glamorgan, including:
- 498 km of Public Footpaths
- 27 km of Public Bridleways
- 25 km of Cart Roads, mainly used as Footpaths
The Council has to make sure these Public Rights of Way are
accessible to the public. This means maintaining surfaces of paths
and footbridges or signposting routes where they leave a road. Some
Rights of Way cross private land. We must also make sure that
landowners carry out their own responsibilities, including
maintaining stiles and gates and removing overhanging vegetation.
The Council can prosecute any landowners who fail to do so or
charge them for doing the work on their behalf.
Definitive Map of Public Rights of Way
The routes and designations of the paths within the Vale of
Glamorgan are shown on the Definitive Map of Public Rights of Way,
and described in the accompanying Statement. Glamorgan County
Council drew up the Map after the Country Parks and Access to the
Countryside Act was passed in 1949. This Definitive Map has a
Relevant Date of September 14, 1954, being the effective date at
which the snapshot view was taken. The Map is a legal document and
is proof of the existence of a public right of way at that
date. Any subsequent changes to the network have been made by a
legal order.
Members of the public may apply for an order to make a change to
the Definitive Map, a register of applications may be viewed on
this web site. A register of landowner declarations regarding
rights of way over their land, is also available.
The Vale of Glamorgan Council has an online mapping
feature which indicates public rights of way across the
county.
All public footpaths can be easily located using the
GIS mapping feature. This may also be accessed from
the ‘Your Vale’ function from the home
page of the website. Find out more about online mapping.
The Improvement of the Public Rights of Way Network
The Council works with a charitable body known as Valeways to
improve the rights of way network. They co-ordinate a team of
volunteers who play a large part in our improvement programme each
year, as well as prepare leaflets and other information on walks in
the Vale area. Visit Valeways to find out more
about how you can help us improve our public rights of way
network.
We are helped in this work by grants from organisations like the
Countryside Council for Wales.
The Local Access Forum
The function of the Local Access Forum is to advise the Vale of
Glamorgan Council, the Countryside Council for Wales and others as
to the improvement of public access to land in the Vale for the
purposes of open-air recreation and the enjoyment of the area. It
was set up in October 2002 and meets four times a year.