Access to the Yorkshire Wolds

Following enactment of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CRoW), the then Countryside Agency (CA) divided England into 8 Regions and mapped them sequentially. For each Region three maps were published: Draft, Provisional and Conclusive. The RA twice submitted evidence to the CA: at the pre-Draft map stage and again at the Draft map revision stage. Landowners were able to appeal against the inclusion of any of their land shown on the Provisional map and the RA was able to submit counter-evidence to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) challenging these appeals and was able to argue its cases before the Inspectors at Appeal Hearings held at Malton (North Yorkshire: Region 5) and Beverley (East Riding of Yorkshire: Region 8).

Archive

A considerable amount of evidence was gathered in course of the above process, which has been deposited with the County Archivists in Northallerton and Beverley for Regions 5 and 8, respectively. Some of it is made available on this website.

Walking Guides

The booklet "Open Access Walks" describing 10 walks in the southern part of the Yorkshire Wolds was published in June 2008 by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. It was partly funded by a grant from Natural England (Access Management Grant)and local RA volunteers helped in its preparation.

The RA and the North Yorkshire County Council are currently collaborating in a project to produce a booklet, similar to the one published by East Riding, that will describe 10 walks in North Yorkshire outside the National Parks. The booklet is expected to be published in May 2009. RA Central Office will provide about half (2,000 GPB) of the funding and North Yorkshire Countryside Service the remainder. Local RA volunteers are currently surveying possible routes.