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Designing planning and housing data

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Planning consideration

Public rights of way (prow)

Specific routes the public have a legal right to use across land that may be owned by a private individual

Design stage
Co-design
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Background information

Each planning consideration we work on passes through the stages of our design process, where we research and answer specific questions to help us collect more information.

Backlog

  • Who asked for 'Public rights of way (prow)' data?

    The Service Owner (SO) of the planning data platform

  • What is the driver for the request?

  • Which 2024 focus area does the request support?

    • Modern planning software
    • Faster local plans

Screen

  • What is the 'Public rights of way (prow)' consideration?

    A public right of way (PRoW) is a legal right for the public to pass along a specific route across land, even if that land is privately owned. There are four categories of PROWs, each with different types of permitted transportation: Footpaths; Bridleways; Restricted byways and Byways open to all traffic (BOAT).

  • Is there legislation that defines 'Public rights of way (prow)'?

    No

  • Who, in law, is responsible for the planning consideration or makes decisions about 'Public rights of way (prow)'?

    • Local highways authority
    • Local planning authorities

  • Which organisations do we think should publish the data?

    • Local authorities

  • Is the Public rights of way (prow) a trigger?

    No

  • Is the Public rights of way (prow) something to consult during plan making?

    No

  • Is there any Public rights of way (prow) data already available?

    Yes

    • What Public rights of way (prow) data is currently available?

      • Item 1

        url
        https://www.rowmaps.com/datasets/
        name
        Details about rights of way
        fields
        Council;Name;Type;Distance;First GridRef;Last GridRef;First Lat,Lon;Last Lat,Lon
        licence
        Open Licence - Rights of way data for the 138 authorities that are listed in the table below have been released with an open licence.
        coverage
        Partial
        publisher
        rowmaps
        attribution
        "The authority's data contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2024." - Used on the dataset webpage.
        metadata_url

  • Do we think the data should come from a single source?

    No - the data that is available above is a cumulation of multiple LPAs who have released their data under an open licence.

  • Will a data standard be required?

    Yes

Research

  • Do we understand the lifecycle of a Public rights of way (prow)?

  • Do we understand how the data is created/produced?

  • Where will or should the data be used?

    • Local plans - PRoWs are referenced a number of times in local plans, so we think that this consideration feeds into the process of creating a local plan as LPAs should have improvement plans in place as part of this.
    • footpaths, bridleways and byways

  • Who are the statutory consultees for Public rights of way (prow)?

    The highways authority

  • Other than the statutory consultees who are the primary users of Public rights of way (prow)? How do we expect them to use Public rights of way (prow)?

  • What are the planning needs for this data?

    Public rights of way are likely to feature on policies maps, to demonstrate accessibility, while also having green infrastructure benefits. When assessing a site to be allocated, the presence of public rights of ways are likley to feature in the assessment of the site, but are unlikely to restrict the allocation of the site, as the assumption is that the site design will take into account the presence of the public right of way.

    In development management, where a developer is seeking planning for a site which has a public right of way, the presence of the public right of way will need to be taken into account when designing the layout of the site. If this is not feasible, then the public right of way will need to be diverted, which requires a separate planning application.

  • Who are the types of users who might benefit from having access to Public rights of way (prow) data?

    Landowners, developers and site promoters, to be able to take the presence of PRoW into account in the early stages of seeking planning.

  • What are some potential uses of Public rights of way (prow) data?

    Understanding the presence of PRoW is useful for developers, landowners and site promoters to take into account during the early stages of progressing a site. This will influence site design and layout.

  • What's the value of adding Public rights of way (prow) data to the platform?

  • From what we have learnt so far are there any risks to making Public rights of way (prow) data available?

1 update

  • Colm Britton (07 October 2024)

    This may include things like bridleways, footpaths and cycle paths

Last updated: 2025-04-24 10:38:57