Creation Agreements and Dedications

The County Council has powers to accept dedications of new rights. This may include a totally new route or may just be the dedication of higher rights over an existing route. Detailed procedures are not yet included, however work will be prioritised according with the policies below:

Prioritising Dedications and Agreements

The policy below sets out the priority that will normally be applied by the County Council to individual cases and hence the order in which applications will be dealt with.

Dedications and Creation Agreements will normally only be processed in the following circumstances:

• where a dedication will satisfy one or more of the key principles.
• where a dedication is offered in lieu of a Modification Order investigation and it satisfies the evidence.
• where the requirement to make a dedication forms part of an obligation in a section 106 agreement.

The County Council wishes to ensure that resources are not diverted away from the processing of Modification Orders and Public Path Orders unless there is a clear benefit to the public

Accepting maintenance liability

The County Council is not obliged to accept the maintenance liability resulting from dedications the policy below sets out the criteria for adopting the maintenance liability of routes.

Maintenance liability will normally only be accepted in the following circumstances:

• Where no initial additional expenditure is required by HCC to bring a path into a fit condition for use; AND
• Where a path has been dedicated free from limitations which would be onerous on the public’s use and enjoyment of the path; AND
• Where the addition of a path is of public benefit.

The County Council wishes to ensure that no additional liability is taken on by the council that is not balanced by a corresponding increase in the public enjoyment.