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11/11/03 - Rights of Way Crime Reduction Policy Under Review

Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet agreed today to work towards a policy on new schemes to close rights of way to help reduce crime. The move follows on from a pilot scheme introduced for a year in Barrow by the county council’s Barrow Local Committee called the Alleygator project. Promoted by Cumbria Constabulary’s Community Safety Unit, the Alleygator project looks at putting gates across back lanes to prevent easy access and escape in areas with high levels of crime. 

County Councillor Kevan Wilkinson, Cabinet spokesman for Highways, said: 

“During Alleygates, part of a Highway was temporarily closed.  The legal and cost implications of those measures are complex.  However the Countryside and Rights of Way Act does give the Council power to close rights of way in a bid to prevent crime.  The council wants to see lower levels of crime but it needs to look at how it will deal with the questions raised by these additional powers and by the Alleygator project.”

Cabinet agreed to consult the county council’s six local committees on the policy to be adopted on rights of way closures for crime prevention purposes, as the committees are likely to take the lead in initiating schemes in their areas. The local committees, which cover the areas of Allerdale, Barrow, Carlisle, Copeland, Eden and South Lakeland, will be asked for their views in particular on suggestions that:

  •       No further Alleygates should be put up in places that affect the highway unless a formal and permanent legal stopping-up has been completed. The Barrow pilot scheme has used temporary closure orders.
  •       Local committees should be granted delegated powers to seek the approval of the Secretary of State for designating areas where paths can be closed under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act to reduce crime.
  •       Local committees should bear the costs for schemes that they propose.

Cabinet also agreed that the county council, as a highway authority, should press the Government for a change in the law to enable highways to be stopped up as an aid to fighting crime in the same way as footpaths under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act.