National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949

67 Provision of means of access

(1) An access agreement or order may make such provision as appears expedient for the purposes of the agreement or order for securing that sufficient means of access to the land comprised in the agreement or order will be available for the public while the land is so comprised.

(2) Provision made by an access agreement or order by virtue of this section may be provision for any one or more of the following matters, that is to say—

(a) the improvement or repair of any means of access to the land in existence at the time when the agreement or order is made;

(b) the construction of new means of access to the land;

(c) the imposition of restrictions on the destruction, removal, alteration or stopping-up of any means of access to the land, or the doing of any thing whereby the use of any such means of access by the public would be impeded; and

(d) the maintenance of any such means of access to the land as are mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection.

(3) No provision made by an access order by virtue of/this section shall—

(a) apply to land which is for the time being excepted land, or authorise or require any thing to be done in relation to such land or any means of access thereto ;

(b) affect the doing of any thing whereby any land becomes excepted land; or

(c) require, or authorise any person to require, any work to be carried out at the expense of any person interested in the land except as hereafter in this section expressly provided.

(4) Where it appears to the local planning authority in whose area the land is situated that any work is required for giving effect to any such provision of an access agreement or order as is specified in paragraphs (a), (b) and (d) of subsection (2) of this section, the authority may agree with the owner and occupier of the land as to the carrying out of the work, and where it is agreed that it shall be carried out otherwise than by the authority may defray the cost of the carrying out thereof, or may contribute such part of that cost as may be specified in the agreement.

(5) If, in a case falling within the last foregoing subsection—

(a) the local planning authority are unable to make an agreement, or

(b) the owner or occupier fails to carry out within a reasonable period any work which he has agreed to carry out,

the local planning authority, after giving to the owner and the occupier not less than fourteen days' notice of their intention so to do, may take all necessary steps for carrying out the work; and where, in a case to which paragraph (b) of this subsection applies, the agreement provided that the authority should contribute part of the cost of carrying out the work, the authority may recover the amount of any expenses reasonably incurred by them in carrying out the work, reduced by their contribution under the agreement, from the person by whom under the agreement the cost (apart from the authority's contribution) of carrying out the work would fall to be borne.

(6) In this section the expression " means of access," in relation to land, means any opening in a wall, fence or hedge bounding the land or any part thereof, with or without a gate, stile or other works for regulating passage through the opening, any stairs or steps for enabling persons to enter on the land or any part thereof, or any bridge, stepping stone or other works for crossing a watercourse, ditch or bog on the land or adjoining the boundary thereof.