Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000

1 (1) Section 53 of the 1981 Act is amended as follows.

(2) In subsection (1) (meaning of “definitive map and statement”) after “subject to section 57(3)” there is inserted “and 57A(1)”.

(3) In subsection (3)(a)(iii), after “public path” there is inserted “or a restricted byway”.

(4) In subsection (3)(c)(i) for “a right of way to which this Part applies” there is substituted “a right of way such that the land over which the right subsists is a public path or, subject to section 54A, a byway open to all traffic”.

(5) In subsection (4), after “public path” there is inserted “, restricted byway”.

(6) After subsection (4) there is inserted—

“(4A) Subsection (4B) applies to evidence which, when considered with all other relevant evidence available to the surveying authority, shows as respects a way shown in a definitive map and statement as a restricted byway that the public have, and had immediately before the commencement of section 47 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, a right of way for vehicular and all other kinds of traffic over that way.

(4B) For the purposes of subsection (3)(c)(ii), such evidence is evidence which, when so considered, shows that the way concerned ought, subject to section 54A, to be shown in the definitive map and statement as a byway open to all traffic.”

(7) After subsection (5) there is inserted—

“(5A) Evidence to which subsection (4B) applies on the commencement of section 47 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 shall for the purposes of subsection (5) and any application made under it be treated as not having been discovered by the surveying authority before the commencement of that section.”