A monitoring regime is in place to assess the progress and expenditure of 'access authorities' (local authorities and national parks) in upholding and facilitating access rights, planning a system of core paths and giving the public reasonable access throughout their areas.
A summary of the latest data, from February 9, 2005 to March 31, 2009 is below.
Summary - February 9, 2005 to March 31, 2009
- There were 695 local access forum meetings across Scotland
- The estimated total length of paths signposted or waymarked was 20,538 km as of 31/03/09
- Eight access authorities had adopted their core paths plan by 31/03/09. The total length of core paths was 4611 km. Of these, 1422 km were signposted or waymarked as of 31/03/09 and 2559 km were maintained by the access authority
- There were 184 section 11 exemption Orders for under 6 days. The most common reason for these was for car rallies
- There were 3 approved section 11 exemption Orders for 6 days or more
- There were 24 section 14 notices issued to remove obstructions
- There was 1 section 15 notice issued to remove a risk of injury
- There were 56 new path agreements
- There were 3 judicial determinations made by local sheriffs for access authority areas under sections 13, 14, 15 and 28 of the Act
Expenditure - April 1, 2005 TO March 31, 2009
The following table illustrates trends in expenditure on path capital and maintenance works, access officer full-time equivalents and salaries, and ranger full-time equivalents, for the four financial years 2005/06 to 2008/09:
| 2005/06 | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | TOTAL |
CAPITAL Access Authorities Match Funding --------------------- TOTAL | (£m) 5.8 6.4 ----- 12.2 | (£m) 6.8 6.6 ----- 13.4 | (£m) 5.5 7.1 ----- 12.6 | (£m) 5.0 4.3 ----- 9.3 | (£m) 23.1 24.5 ----- 47.6 |
MAINTENANCE Access Authorities | (£m) 1.4* | (£m) 2.0 | (£m) 2.2 | (£m) 1.5 | (£m) 7.1 |
ACCESS OFFICERS Full-time equivalents Salaries expenditure | 68 (£m) 2.0 | 66 (£m) 2.1 | 62 (£m) 2.0 | 60 (£m) 2.0 | (£m) 8.1 |
RANGERS Full-time equivalents (local authorities funded by Scottish Natural Heritage) | 208 | 208 | 209 | 248 X | |
* Data for City of Edinburgh Council is not included as it was thought to be a substantial over-estimate.
XLoch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority increased rangers by 31 full-time equivalents.
Expenditure on capital works on core paths was £234,000.
Expenditure on maintenance works on core paths was £80,000.
The total cost of running local access forums was £197,000.
The expenditure by access authorities on publicising the Scottish Outdoor Access Code was £484,000.
Other expenditure was £6.7m, for example on core paths plan printing, IT provision, other staff time, travel costs, route feasibility studies, people counters, visitor centres etc.