Lincs County Council officials outline ways of dealing with 30-year backlog of public rights of way applications

Members of Lincolnshire County Council’s highways and transport scrutiny committee heard that there had been a 1,582 per cent rise in applications for potential public rights of way.

The committee was told that there were eight times as many Definitive Map Modification Orders (DMMOs) between 2020 and 2024 as they were in the entire decade before (452, compared to 57).

It heard that it would take approximately 30 years to get through the applications with the county council’s current resources.

DMMOs are applications to the county council to assess whether or not a potential route should be formally recognised as a public right of way.

Officers previously explained that approximately 400 applications (69 per cent) had come from one person and that this was the result of a ‘desk-based trawl’ for any ‘possible’ right of way, regardless of their current functional use.

At a meeting on Monday, December 8, Andrew Fletcher, public rights of way and access manager at the county council, said: “The council has a duty to receive these applications and determine where or not to make an order to recognise the path within a reasonable amount of time.

“Recently, as you’ll see in the report, over the last four years, there’s been an unprecedented surge in applications that’s been received.

“It means that we’ve had to review how we look at these and which ones we look at first.”

Mr Fletcher went on to say that the new system will allow the county council to prioritise cases based on “public need”.

He added: “What we’re proposing is a different way of organising this using a weighted scoring system.

“This would take into account a number of factors such as public safety, residential impact, community conflict, threats to routes and a variety of issues.

“But it’s very objective. The factor either applies or it doesn’t and when it does apply, points are awarded to that case, so you’re able to tot up all of the points and then work out where the case should be in comparison to others.

“This allows it to be much more transparent and objective and focus on public benefit and residential property impacts.”

Mr Fletcher added that applicants would still have a “right to appeal” to the county council’s definitive map sub-committee.

Coun Christopher Reeve (Reform UK) asked whether sites where solar panels have been proposed would be given higher priority.

The Scotter Rural division councillor said: “A lot of Lincolnshire at the moment is under NSIPs (Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects) for things like solar panel development.

“I just wondered if that’s covered significantly under threats to route and is that part of the planning that NSIPs do give a high weighting and somebody’s got 20 points for that and is that high enough as NSIPs seem to overwrite anything these days.”

Mr Fletcher said: “Yes, that element would allow us, particularly where there’s approved development.

“So when there was approved planning permission for a route, that would add the 20 points on.

“The reason why it’s not proposed development is because it would allow quite an easy way to push your case further up the list by having spurious planning applications which weren’t going to go anywhere.”

He added that NSIPs would be treated “separately as part of the standard, day-to-day engagement” where the county council would examine the area and engage with the applicants who have put forward the proposals.

Coun Charlotte Vernon (Conservative – Colsterworth Rural division), said: “Having sat as a member of the committee last year, on one or two occasions, I know that it’s much needed.

“It’s completely fair to say that there’s a really significant backlog in this area and the increase since 2020 of 1,582% is absolutely vast.

“I recognise that that could have never ever been predicted but can I ask has that now stopped – the number of applications that are coming through?”

Mr Fletcher said: “We’ve noticed a slowdown. I couldn’t promise that it will ever stop and it depends on the applicant.

“The particular person who was responsible for the majority of those has slowed down and I think that’s because they’ve come to the end of what can be proved with the evidence that is available.”

The executive member for highways and transport will examine the proposal and will make a formal decision at a later date.