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Vale of Glamorgan Council

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.

 

walking along the coastline

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.

Vale of Glamorgan Council, Civic Offices, Holton Road, Barry CF63 4RU, Tel: (01446) 700111