DRAFT maps showing proposed access land in the Yorkshire Dales National Park have been published, launching consultation on defining areas to which the public will have access rights from 2004.
The Countryside Agency has produced a map of the whole park, which goes on show at park offices in Grassington. A second map, covering the north of the park, goes on display at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes.
The move marks the first stage in public consultation, leading to a conclusive access map for the Dales after the Countryside and Rights of Way Bill became an Act of Parliament in 2000.
Members of the public or organisations can comment on the draft map during the consultation period, which ends on March 10.
Sue Hilder, access and recreation officer at the national park authority, said: "The publication of the draft map is a major landmark on the road to providing the public with the new right of access, on foot, to the open countryside. It is the first stage of the consultation process that will lead to the introduction of the new right, come 2004-5.
"The whole point of the consultation period is to allow anyone to raise any mapping errors, and for people to tell the Countryside Agency where they think areas of access land have either been missed off the map or wrongly included."
The draft map for the whole of the park is available for viewing Mondays to Thursdays, 8.30-5pm and Fridays, 8.30-4.30, at the authority's office in Grassington. This office is also open on Saturdays, January 18 and February 15, 10am-4pm.
The map for the north of the park is available for viewing daily, 10am-5pm, at the Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes.
* Landowners' warned: page 20
London protest
ON Monday, rural protestors from the North-East are due to ring Parliament in a symbolic show of anger against the Government's proposal to outlaw hare coursing and stag hunting.
It is a protest to mark the second reading of the Government's new Hunting bill.
"Country sports supporters from across the North-East will be making the trip to show solidarity with stag packs in Devon and their coursing colleagues throughout England and Wales, said Richard Dodd, regional director for the Countryside Alliance
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