Public path orders and agreements
Suffolk Coastal has powers to make a variety of public path
orders and to make public path creation agreements. Most of the
orders made by the Council are
funded by the applicants and use the our
powers under section 119 of the Highways Act 1980 to divert routes.
Orders to extinguish routes can be made under section 118 of the
Highways Act 1980. Creation agreements are made under section 25 of
the Highways Act 1980.
Routes can also be diverted or stopped up under section 257 of
the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, if it is necessary to do so
to implement a planning permission given by the Council.
Applications made under this legislation are also usually funded by
the applicant.
We carry out informal consultations on all applications for
public path orders before deciding whether to make an order.
Proposals are often altered as a result of consultations
and we are keen for applicants and consultees to reach
agreement wherever possible. Opposed applications, or those that do
not appear to meet the statutory criteria, are determined by the
Rights of Way Committee.
If we make an order to which a public objection is
received we can only proceed with the order by referring it to
the Planning Inspectorate (new window) for
determination. This may mean that a public inquiry is held.
The changes made by such orders and agreements affect the right
of the public to cross private land and so can be contentious and
the subject of impassioned debate. Because of this it is important
that the system of making decisions on changes to the public rights
of way network is seen to be open and impartial, consisting of
sound judgements made for justifiable reasons. To this end Suffolk
Coastal has
a code of practice (new window PDF 103KB) that
sets out clearly the way in which we deal with applications
for public path orders and
agreements.