Date: 15 December 2008

Our ref: RFI385/6/SW

Your ref: Ref

Mr Michael McCarthy

By Email: [FOI #4243 email] &

[email address]

Dear Mr McCarthy

Access to Information Request - Partial release - RFI 385 and 386

Thank you for your 2 requests for information which are listed below:

Q1 (RFI 385) - A list showing the locations and extents of all the parcels of land in SE England which have become accessible to the public as a consequence of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act

Q2 (RFI 386) - What percentage of the land surface of England was publicly accessible before the Countryside and Rights of Way Act came into force.

both of which we received on 18 November 2008. Your request has been considered under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Please find below our response both questions:

Q1 (RFI 385) - The attached documents provide information on the land mapped under CROW in the South East. This is known as Mapping Area 1 and comprises of the counties of Surrey, Kent, West Sussex and East Sussex and the London Boroughs of Hillingdon, Hounslow, Richmond upon Thames, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton, Croydon, Bromley and Bexley. This includes land mapped as open country (OC) i.e. it met the definition of mountain, moor, heath or down,), registered common Land (RCL) i.e. land registered as common under the Commons Registration Act, 1965 and section 16 land (S16) i.e. land where the landowner has voluntarily dedicated their land for public access. For full definitions of open country, registered common land or section 16 land please click on the hyperlinks.

The methodology used to produce the maps of OC and RCL required qualifying land type to be attributed to specific polygons which were given a unique identification number. The amalgamation of these is what is shown on the map. The accompanying spreadsheets list all the individual parcels of OC and RCL mapped in the South East. Full details of the methodology is available in the Countryside Agency document Mapping Method for England.

The attached maps show the locations of this land and an interactive map is available on website. The below link will take you directly to it.

http://www.openaccess.gov.uk/S4/html/default.htm

The attached spreadsheets list the various parcels of land within mapping area 1.The information on each spreadsheet varies depending on what information was available to extract from the mapping datasets used for each category. Below is a summary of what we have been able to provide on each type of mapped land:

Section 16 land spreadsheets - we have been able to provide information on extents of land but we have been unable to provide lists of locations.

Registered common land spreadsheets- we have been able to provide details of the registering authority and the name of the common land but we have not been able to provide lists of locations or extents

Open countryside spreadsheets - we have been unable to provide lists of any real meaning as the only details the list show are CA collection number. These are ID numbers are the Unique TOID - (Topographical identifiers) for each parcel. These TOIDS only relate to the actual Conclusive Map of Open Country for England and resides on the MAD (Mapping Access Database). This database allows us to search each parcel individually and see how and when it was mapped. The MAD software is needed to undertake a search on the ID numbers and they cannot be used to search on any other software or mapping system so in reality has no external relevance as tabular data.

To obtain this information would have meant splitting existing datasets to create a new dataset to provide it therefore the information you have requested relating to lists of locations and extents of all parcels of land in the South East is being withheld as Natural England considers the request for this information to be manifestly unreasonable in accordance with the exception in Regulation 12(4)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. I have set out below our reasons for determining that this request is manifestly unreasonable.

An exercise has been undertaken in estimating the workload involved in providing the information. We have estimated that it would take approximately 74 hours to complete the task. The EIR fees regulations allows us to set a nominal charge £25 per hour therefore, this would give an equivalent cost of £25 x 74 hours = £1,850 to split, create and extract the information from the datasets. We therefore consider this request to be manifestly unreasonable in light of the time, resources and excessive costs needed to comply with this request.

In applying this exception, we have to balance the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosure. Whilst Natural England believes in openness and transparency, as a public body, Natural England has a duty to be both accountable and transparent in the effective and wise spending of public money. It is clear from the estimates outlined above, that the cost equivalent of providing the information requested (74hrs or £1,850), is far in excess of the £450 “appropriate limit” as stated in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, and that the request would place a substantial and unreasonable burden on the resources of Natural England and the work involved requires an unreasonable diversion of resources from the provisions of our public service and core functions. Whilst there is a presumption in favour of disclosure of information, Natural England considers that the public interest will genuinely be served in this case, by withholding this information.

Q2 (RFI 386) In response to your request for additional information about what percentage of land surface of England was publicly accessible before the Countryside and Rights of Way (CROW)came into force the at the figure of 6.5% already provided to you related to land that was made accessible as a result of the CROW Act 2000. As you point out some of the registered common land included in this figure would already have had a right of access but it was not the case prior to CROW for there to be a statutory right of access to all registered common land in England. What access there was often de facto, by tradition or restricted to local people.

The reason we provided you with the CROW figure is because the percentage of land that was accessible before the Act has never been accurately calculated as there is no data for every type of access e.g. village greens, public parks and open access granted under previous enactments etc. An estimate of existing access provision in England and Wales was included in Annex 2 of the Government's consultation paper "Access to the open countryside in England and Wales - February 1998. For the categories of land where data could be found it was estimated that there were 765,756ha of accessible land. If you add this to the total area of CROW access land open to the public as 865,122.2ha, this means that there is potentially 1, 630,878 ha of land potentially available for access.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision, please contact:

Darren Green, Senior Specialist Information Access and Security,

Natural England, Block B, Government Buildings, Whittington, WORCESTER WR5 2LQ

Email: [email address]

Tel: 01905 363431

Under Regulation 11(2) this needs to be done no later than 40 working days after the date of this letter.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by Natural England. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone: 01625 545 700, www.ico.gov.uk.

If you have any queries about this letter please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Sarah Waterfield

Adviser - Information Access and Security

Email: [email address]

Sarah Waterfield

Natural England

Northminster House

Northminster Road

PETERBOROUGH

PE1 1UA

T: 01733 455182