In the past year some major changes have taken place in access legislation as a result of the passing of The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. The new legislation will provide new access, as of right, to open countryside and an important overhaul countryside, voluntary agreements, including under agri-environment schemes, will also continue to play an important part in access provision outside of the open countryside access areas.

Given the range of types of access that will be available post-CROW Act (eg. rights of way, statutory open countryside access, various voluntary access) and the wide range of providers, planning and co-ordination of access will present a considerable challenge.

This paper investigates the extent to which strategic planning, provision and co-ordination of access between access providers is already taking place, the extent to which new access (statutory and non-statutory) is being provided at a local level and how voluntary access under agri-environment schemes is contributing to overall access provision.

The paper highlights problems with the planning and provision of access under agri-environment schemes and examines examples of ?good practice? where such schemes are being well co-ordinated with local access needs, and considers what lessons there are to be learnt if a more strategically planned and co-ordinated access network is to be achieved.of public rights of way legislation. The changes also promise to establish a more strategic vision of access to the countryside.

Local authorities will have to prepare rights of way improvement plans and set-up non-statutory Local Access Forums (LAFS), which will provide advice on the implementation of local authority recreation and access strategies, the above improvement plans and the proposed public right of access to open countryside.