The Countryside Access (Draft Maps) (Wales) Regulations 2001

Issue of draft maps

4.—(1) The Council is to be taken to have discharged its duty to issue a draft map in accordance with section 5(a) of the Act when it has:

(a) made such arrangements as are within its power for a copy of the draft map produced under regulation 3(8) in printed form and, where possible in electronic form, to be available for inspection by members of the public at all reasonable times (subject, in the case of inspection at offices other than its own, to such requirement for the making of appointments to do so as the relevant authority may require) throughout the consultation period at the:

(i) head office of the Council and the local office of the Council, which is nearest to the area to which the draft map relates, not including any office which is not open during normal office hours; and

(ii) head office of each relevant local authority and relevant National Park authority, if any;

(b) despatched a copy of the draft map produced under regulation 3(8) to a scale of not less than 1:25,000 either in printed form or, if the Council and the recipient agree, in electronic form, together with a notice containing the same information as that required to be contained in the notice to be published under sub-paragraph (c) of this paragraph, to each of the organisations specified in Schedule 1 to these Regulations and to such other persons as it considers appropriate;

(c) published a notice complying with the requirements of paragraph (2) in at least one daily newspaper circulating throughout that part of Wales which includes the area to which the draft map relates and such other newspapers or publications circulating in that part of Wales as the Council thinks fit;

(d) sent a notice in writing or in electronic form, complying with the requirements of paragraph (2), to each of the public libraries listed in Schedule 2 and accompanied by a request that a copy of the notice be displayed to the public at that library.

(2) A notice complying with the requirements of this paragraph must:

(a) identify the area to which the draft map relates;

(b) state that the effect of the draft map, if confirmed, will be to fix provisionally the extent of the land to which the public will, subject to such exceptions and restrictions as the Act provides, be entitled to exercise access under section 2 of the Act when that section comes into force;

(c) state that confirmation of the draft map will be without prejudice to the right of any person having an interest in land included in the land shown on the draft map as section 4(2) land to appeal to the National Assembly for Wales following such confirmation against its inclusion;

(d) give particulars of the means by which members of the public may inspect a copy of the draft map;

(e) give particulars of the means by which members of the public may make representations to the Council as to the showing of, or the failure to show, any area of land on the draft map as open country as defined in the Act or as registered common land and explain that the Council will be obliged to consider such representations only if they are received by the Council within the consultation period and that any person making such representations should bear in mind that the terms of those representations may be made public;

(f) state that any person who has an interest in any land shown on the draft map as section 4(2) land may, by a request in writing received before the end of the consultation period, and identifying the nature of that interest and the land to which it relates, require the Council to provide that person free of charge with one copy produced under regulation 3(8) of the draft map or of an extract from the draft map relating to that land, which copy must be in printed form or, if the Council and that person agree, in electronic form;

(g) state the address to which any request under sub-paragraph (f) should be sent;

(h) specify the consultation period, being a period of not less than three months from the date when notice complying with this paragraph is first published; and

(i) be first published no earlier than the date on which the Council has complied, with respect to the draft map to which the notice relates, with all the requirements of paragraphs (1)(a) and (1)(b).

(3) Any notice published in accordance with paragraph (1)(c) or sent in accordance with paragraph (1)(d) may, in addition to such information as is required to be included under paragraph (2), include such further information as the Council shall think fit.