Landowners Responsibilities

Whilst the County Council administers the Rights of Way Network it is chiefly the responsibility of landowners to ensure that routes do not become obstructed or inaccessible as a result of their actions.

The principal responsibilities of landowners are to:

• Maintain stiles and gates in good order. Although Monmouthshire County Council will often assist by carrying out any required works on the owner's behalf, landowners should remain aware of their responsibilities. In cases where a person is injured whilst using a defective stile or gate the landowner may be held liable for damages.
• Obtain consent from the highway authority before erecting new stiles or gates on public paths.
• Cut back encroaching or overhanging vegetation, (vegetation growing through the surface of the path is the County's responsibility).
• Refrain from obstructing paths or ploughing those that constitute a headland along a field edge.
• Reinstate and mark within two weeks of ploughing, paths that run across fields and ensure that these paths are kept clear of crops to at least there minimum width.
• Refrain from keeping the following animals in any field crossed by a public path  - any dairy bull over 10 months old; any beef bull over the age of 10 months unless accompanied by cows or heifers.
• Refrain from any action intended to deter people from using a path including posting of notices.

Duties of the Council

By exercising powers of enforcement a Highway Authority is able to ensure that landowners are capitulating with their responsibilities and in doing so is itself remaining in compliance with its legal obligations.

The County's duties of enforcement principally stem from section 130 of the Highways Act which requires the County, as a Highway Authority to:

Assert and protect the rights of the public to the use and enjoyment of any highway for which it is the highway authority and to prevent, as far as possible, the stopping up or obstruction of such highways.

Therefore, a legal requirement rests upon the County to protect all routes within its Rights of Way network through the assertion of the powers conveyed under highways legislation.

Cross-field paths should be kept clear of crops to at least the minimum width.
Right of Way             1 Metre
Cross-Field Path       1 Metre
Footpath                   1 Metre

Bridleway                  2 Metres

Other Rights of Way  3 Metres