National Statistics
From GPG
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The Performance of Local Highway Authorities
Work was carried out by CSS on behalf of the CSS Countryside Working Group and the Countryside Agency in 2003/4 to monitor the performance of local highway authorities' public rights of way work. The full report is available - the summary results are given here. Please note that due to the low level of responses to the survey some caution is required when using the data.
Staffing levels:
- it is estimated that 1350 full time equivalent staff were working on rights of way in England in 2003/04;
- authorities employed, on average, over twice the number of staff on the maintenance of the network as they did on work relating to the Definitive Map;
- staffing levels fell in 2001/02, but subsequently increased on average by 7.5% pa and by 2004 stood over 30% above 1999/2000 levels;
- each member of staff involved in maintenance work in a county council in 2004 was nominally responsible for 382km of rights of way, a reduction of some 18% since 1999/2000.
Volunteer input:
- it is estimated that volunteers contributed 88,400 work-days in 2003/04 - a cash equivalent of some £4.4m;
- 70% of this input went towards maintenance functions, with Definitive Map work benefiting from less than 1% of the total;
- volunteer input had risen by 47% between 1999 and 2004, despite falls between 2000 and 2002.
Financial input:
- it is estimated that expenditure on public rights of way in England stood at £50.6m in 2003/04;
- 49% of this sum was spent on maintenance, with 14% on the Definitive Map and 11% on development and promotion;
- the average expenditure on maintaining the network stood at £130/km in 2003/04;
- since 1999/2000, the estimated national expenditure on the public rights of way network had increased by approximately 55%;
- overall, 20% of expenditure came as income from external sources.
Overall resources:
- overall it is estimated that there has been a 123% (£30.4m) increase in rights of way resources (financial and costed voluntary) between 1990 and 2004, with a 54% (£19.2m) increase since 1999/2000;
- the rate of increase showed a marked rise since 2000, reaching almost 18% between 2002/03 and 2003/04.
