What happens now?

Now it's a little bit of a waiting game I'm sorry to say. The council team has some 40 investigations to conduct. In part this is due to a backlog that did develop during covid, and because of the 2026 deadline for claiming historical rights of way.

Some people have heard of this, some have not. The government's aim aim was to draw a line under historical claims for rights of way. This would have extinguished claims to historic paths or tracks. Regardless of any personal views on the rights or wrongs of this (and it's not hard to guess how the Open Spaces Society and the Ramblers felt about it) this has created a frantic search for historic pathways and a higher than usual number of claims being filed.

That deadline has now been abolished however it resulted in quite a claims influx, and a longer queue than has been the case in the past.