Form

Schedule 14 Appeal Guidance

Updated 18 September 2024

Applies to England

1. Background

Anyone who has made an unsuccessful application to a local highway authority for an order to modify the area’s definitive map and statement can appeal the decision. The application could have been to include a right of way or amend a right of way that is already shown.

The right of appeal does not exist if the authority issues a refusal notice to make an order for the status applied for but resolves to make an order for a different status or where the authority makes an order which differs from the application in some other way. The right of appeal against the authority’s determination is only valid if that determination is not to make an order at all.

The right of appeal does not apply to applications which are deemed to be invalid by the authority (Schedule 14(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 sets out the form and notice for applications. Schedule 7 of The Wildlife and Countryside (Definitive Maps and Statements) Regulations 1993 SI 1993 No.12 also refers).

If an application has not been made in the prescribed form, in accordance with paragraph 1 of Schedule 14 of the 1981 Act, the authority may use its discretion and determine that application, waiving the breaching of the requirements of paragraph 1. However, if the authority refuses to consider an application when it is not made in the correct form then there is no right of appeal.

Appeals may be made to the Secretary of State under paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 14 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Appeals must be made in writing (The Planning Inspectorate welcomes electronic submission of appeals) within 28 days of the decision letter from the authority refusing to make the order. The role of the Inspector, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State, should be to decide from the evidence submitted with the appeal and any other evidence which may be put before them, whether there is a case for making an order and, if so, to direct the authority accordingly.

In line with a change in Defra policy on 13 February 2014, evidence to be considered by the Inspector should not be limited to that which was previously considered by the local highway authority in refusing the original application. Evidence, not previously considered by the local highway authority may therefore be submitted with an appeal.

Relevant evidence submitted from interested third parties will also be considered by the Inspector along with any subsequent comments made by either or both the appellant and the local authority, on that third party evidence.

There is no statutory provision for determining Schedule 14 Appeals. However, the majority of appeal cases are determined following an exchange of representations without a site visit. A site visit will only be made on the request of the Inspector.

A more formal oral procedure may, on occasion, be adopted where, having reviewed all the evidence submitted, the Inspector considers it is necessary to ensure procedural fairness, or he/she considers the conflict of evidence cannot be fairly resolved on consideration of the written representations and papers alone. In these circumstances the local authority will be asked to provide a suitable venue for the holding of that oral procedure – be it an inquiry or a hearing.

Please be aware that no party can make an application for costs against any other party (on the basis of unreasonable behaviour) at a hearing or inquiry held in relation to a Schedule 14 Appeal. This is because it is not covered in the relevant legislation.

2. Process

Following receipt of a valid appeal (which can be in the form of a letter or a completed Appeal Form (see link below) plus relevant documentation), the highway authority will be asked to respond to it in the form of a statement of case. The appellant will be given the right of reply to the statement submitted by the authority. It is important that the grounds of appeal are clearly set out in the letter/appeal form. If grounds are not submitted, the authority will be unable to respond and the Inspector will be unable to consider the appeal.

Requests for appeal forms and submitted appeals must be addressed to the:

Rights of Way Team
The Planning Inspectorate
Room 3A Eagle
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol
BS1 6PN

Or forwarded to [email protected].

The Planning Inspectorate takes its data protection responsibilities for the information you provide us with very seriously. To find out more about how we use and manage your personal data, please go to our privacy notice.

Each appeal is assigned to a case officer who is the contact for everyone who is involved with the appeal.

Stages of an appeal (if possible please send in all statements/documents electronically, please see below for guidance):

• Notice of appeal served on both Secretary of State and the local authority (Failure to serve notice on the local authority within the 28 day period will invalidate the appeal) within 28 days of authority issuing a decision. Appellant submits grounds of appeal and relevant documentation to the Planning Inspectorate
• Appeal documents are copied to the Authority and its statement requested in return (Authority asked to notify interested parties of the appeal)
• Authority’s statement sent to the Appellant with request for comments
• Appellant’s comments, and any correspondence from a third party, copied to the authority for comments
• Any correspondence from a third party also copied to the Appellant for comments
• Any comments from the Authority copied to the Appellant and third party (if there is one) for final comments
• Any comments from the Appellant copied to the Authority and third party (if there is one) for final comments
• All final comments cross-copied between the Authority, Appellant and any third party for information only;
• An Inspector, appointed by the Secretary of State, determines the appeal.

The overall target for handling these cases is 30 weeks. Cases determined by a formal oral procedure will not be completed within this target.

3. Making of the Order (Schedule 15)

In the event that the authority is directed to make an order, the Secretary of State may direct the authority to make the order by a certain date.

The procedure for making an order is set out in Schedule 15 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The authority is required to give notice of the making of the order specifying the time within which objections and representations can be made to it. Notice is given by publication in a local newspaper, by service on every owner and occupier of the land affected, every local authority whose area includes that land and any other persons as may be prescribed or as the authority consider appropriate. A copy of the notice will also be displayed at each end of the path(s) affected, at the Council’s offices, and at any other the places the authority considers to be appropriate.

If no objections or representations are received, the authority will be able to confirm the order as unopposed.

More information about the order making process can be found in the Defra Rights of Way Circular (1/09).

Opposed orders, where objections and/or representations have been received are referred to the Secretary of State for determination.

Information about the determination process can be found in our booklet Guidance on Procedures for considering objections to Definitive Map and Public Path Orders in England

Hard copies of the booklet are available on request

4. Guidelines for submitting documents electronically

Please see the detailed advice below:

4.1 Accceptable file formats

PDF .pdf

Microsoft Word .doc or .docx

TIF .tif or .tiff

JPEG .jpg or .jpeg

PNG .png

ZIP .zip

4.2 File sizes

Documents submitted may be no bigger that 15mb each. It is your responsibility to keep your documents to a manageable size.

If you have documents that are larger than this, you can try the following:

• Break long documents into several files but note the naming conventions below.
• Try and use black and white wherever possible (unless submitting photographs).
• If submitting images, your software may have file/image compression facilities to make them smaller.
• Note scanned documents are usually bigger than non-scanned versions.
• Provided you are using the acceptable files types above, you can use ZIP files to compress documents.

4.3 Security

Remove any document security and enable macros if necessary. Documents should not be password protected. They should not be formatted as ‘read only’ and printing should be enabled.

4.4 Copyright

Ensure you have the owner’s permission and have paid any copyright licence fee before sending in documents.

4.5 File names

• Ensure all documents have descriptive names, including the type of document you are sending, e.g. ‘Statement of case 17 February 2017’.
• Number appendices and submit them as separate documents. Ensure the first page includes the appendix number. Name them to indicate what they form part of, and their sequence e.g. ‘Statement of case Appendix 2 User evidence.’
• Use ‘Part 1’, ‘Part 2’ etc in the file name if you have split up a large document e.g. ‘Proof of evidence Part 1 of 2’.
• Include the required paper size in the document name for maps or other documents larger than A4 e.g. ‘Ordnance survey map A3 size 1 June 2016’.
• Do not use a colon ‘:’ in any file names.

4.6 Scanning

Ensure documents are complete and legible and avoid scanning more than one document into a single file. Use black and white unless colour is essential.

4.7 Ordnance Survey

People may only scan an Ordnance Survey map if they have a licence to make copies. More information on map licensing is available on the Ordnance Survey website

4.8 Images

Send pictures, photographs or maps as individual files. Avoid using bitmap images as they are very large.

4.9 Hyperlinks

• You should not use hyperlinks within documents you send to us. Instead, you should download such documents yourself and attach them separately.
• You should not use hyperlinks to a website page containing multiple documents or links.

4.10 Formatting

You should ensure that you number all pages accordingly.

4.11 Sending emails

For any correspondence which you send to us via email, you should:

• Quote the case reference number and title of the Order in the subject line or in the body of your email.
• If you are attaching more than one document, please list them in your covering email.
• If you are sending a series of email, include ‘1 of 5’, ‘2 of 5’ etc in the subject line of the email, so we know how many to expect and can check with you if any appear to be missing.
• • Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in casework evidence - If you use AI to create or alter any part of your documents, information or data, you should tell us that you have done this when you provide the material to us. See the detailed guidance for further information.