AN investigation is being launched into a bizarre situation in which access to Open Access land is limited or prevented by a lack of public rights of way.

North Yorkshire County Council highways boss Councillor Don Mackenzie pledged to examine the extent of the problem after the county’s Local Access Forum heard walkers faced making “lengthy diversions, having to trespass or be parachuted” to get to some of the county’s most scenic spots.

The meeting heard said the situation had persisted at some vast areas of land since the Countryside Rights of Way Act gave people the right to roam over unimproved grassland in 2000.

The legislation gave walkers a legal right to walk over mountains, moorland, heath, downland and common land, without having to stay on paths. People can use access land for walking, running, watching wildlife and climbing and take their dogs, providing the dogs are on a lead no more than two metres long.

While much of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors are designated as open access, across England the rights of access under the legislation applies to around 1.4 million hectares.

Committee member Michael Bartholomew said while the scale of the issue in North Yorkshire remained unclear, there was frustration in areas such as Grimwith Reservoir and Upper Nidderdale, where Open Acess land could be seen, but not reached due to an absence of public footpaths.

He said while the Right to Roam legislation made provision for councils to negotiate new rights of way to enable access to Open Access land, there was no incentive for landowners to agree to new footpaths.

Mr Bartholomew questioned whether the county council had a path creation programme, as envisaged under the legislation.

He said: “Access areas where the public have a right to roam are not invariably connected to the rights of way network. There is a beautiful open access area in Upper Nidderdale which stretches for miles, but which you cannot get to if you go along the road below it for five miles there are no public footpaths connecting you on to it. It is a very intractable problem, in which people are having to drive miles before they have a right to roam.”

Cllr Mackenzie said due to ongoing budgetary pressures, council funding to create access routes such as permissive paths would be “severely restricted”.

He said: “It is clearly an anomaly that there is a right to roam and beautiful areas where the public is allowed to roam, but there is no way for the  public to get there. We will look into it.”