Agenda item

·       Natural England’s LAF Engagement Plan

·       Update on LAF meetings/conferences

·       Huddle

·       Consultations (dog walking advice guide, CAP reform)

Natural England (NE) had a Local Access Forum (LAF) Engagement Plan but its statutory role in relation to LAFs was limited to receiving copies of LAF annual reports and being notified of changes made to forum arrangements and changes in the Secretary. NE welcomed advice from LAFs.

There was a National Conference held in Bristol on 4 February 2015. Forum Members from Bracknell Forest LCAF were unable to attend and officers were not allowed to attend on behalf of LAFs. Presentations and workshops at the conference included: The Deregulation Bill (DEFRA), how LAFs could access lottery Grants (Big Lottery Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund), rail crossings (Network Rail), Paths in Crisis Report (Ramblers Association), access and land managers (The Country Landowners Association), unrecorded Rights of Way and farmland (The National Farmers Union), Local Enterprise Partnerships and Local Nature Partnerships (Natural England), access for all (New Forest LAF), LAF effectiveness case study (Leicestershire County Council), the ‘Doggy Do Code’ and other initiatives for promoting responsible dog ownership (New Forest LAF, and Natural England & Dorset Dogs).

The Deregulation Bill was in the process of being reformed and the aim was to simplify it. Landowners would usually be stopped for erecting gates if they caused an obstruction; now landowners would need to apply to erect gates.

A South East Local Access Forum Conference was held on 20 May 2014, with information available on Huddle. A South East Officers meeting was due to take place today and there would be feedback on this at the next meeting of the Bracknell Forest LCAF. Neighbouring LAF meetings took place if Forum members were interested in attending these.

Officers thanked Forum members for their input on the Dog Walking Advice Guide consultation, which had been submitted to Natural England and National Resource Wales. The advice guide focused upon engaging with dog walkers and feedback raised the point that there was an opportunity to make dog walkers more aware of their legal responsibilities in relation to dog ownership (for example, it would be a legal requirement for dogs to be chipped from 2016). It was queried how other countries managed this process. Sharon raised the point that by law, horses’ were required to have passports, but the difficultly was in enforcing these. For example, owners did not always notify the relevant authority when they had sold a horse.

In their Dog Walking Code of Conduct, Bracknell Forest Council (BFC) tried to achieve a balance between positively engaging dog walkers whilst pointing out the consequences to dog walkers for failing to fulfil their legal responsibilities, for example, fixed penalty notices could be given to owners who failed to pick up after their dog had fouled. Some dog walkers’ pledge forms, which were part of the updated leaflet, had been returned by dog walkers.

The military had closed off some areas of land to avoid dog fouling on their land. Officers would see which approach worked best with dog walkers; it was suggested that signs could be considered.

The consultation on the implementation of CAP reform in England was undertaken in 2013 and approximately 5,000 responses had been received. A few LAFs had fed into the consultation and the conditions which related to Public Rights of Way (PROW) were considered. The feedback from the consultation was that many of the Cross Compliance conditions in relation to PROW were already covered in law, but the majority of respondents were still in favour of keeping them. There would be limited impact in Bracknell Forest as there were a low number of agricultural holdings in the area.