ES0216 Rights of Way and Countryside Maintenance

The Rights of Way and Countryside Service manages a diverse range of statutory, regulatory and discretionary services. These include:

• The management, maintenance and enforcement of more than 3850 miles of public rights of way, including sections of The Ridgeway and Thames Path National Trails
• Keeping the legal records of public rights of way, town and village greens, common land and highways maintainable at public expense and available for public inspection and responding to over 6,000 Local Land Charges Searches annually and numerous other enquiries concerning these records
• Processing applications to modify the Definitive Map and Statement of public rights of way, to create, divert or stop-up public rights of way, to register new town and village greens and to amend and deregister common land
• Management and maintenance of a range of countryside sites owned by Wiltshire Council
• Devising and operating an annual programme of community-based countryside events
• Establishment and management of The Wiltshire and Swindon Countryside Access Forum
• Management and maintenance of trees on land owned by Wiltshire Council
• Working with and providing leadership and guidance to volunteer groups working on public rights of way and the council's countryside sites, Wiltshire Tree Wardens, etc
• Supporting the work of the Cotswolds, the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs and the North Wessex Downs Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the New Forest National Park and the Cotswold Water Park
• Supporting the work of the Canals and Rivers Trust, Cotswolds Canal Partnership, the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust and the Wiltshire, Swindon and Oxfordshire Canal Partnership (including liaison with other local authorities and statutory bodies) and liaison and support for the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust