The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (sometimes abbreviated to NERC) was passed in spring 2006.
The biggest implication for Cumbria is the way that routes for recreational vehicular use are defined and managed. In some ways the Act has added more clarity to the types of routes that off-road vehicles can legally use - but in other ways there are still some questions left unanswered!
A link to the pages about the Hierarchy of Trails routes in Cumbria outside the National Parks
One of the results of the Act was the introduction of a cut-off date for byway claims based on historical evidence (with some exceptions).
The date was 20th January 2005. The document to download below shows you which ones met that deadline (these should still be processed as byway claims) and which ones were submitted later.