Paths and rights of way - general information

Countryside and outdoor access

West Lothian Council’s appointment of David Oldham as Access Officer in April 2003 was in response to the Scottish Parliament’s passing of the Land Reform Act 2003. The Act will afford the public greater access to the Scottish countryside and it is anticipated the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, an integral part of the Act, will be enacted by the Scottish Parliament in Spring 2004. This defines the responsibilities of the public and landowners in taking and providing for access for walkers, cyclists, horse riders and the disabled.

However, it is expected that the overwhelming majority of people will want to explore and appreciate the countryside by means of paths, ideally with signposts, way-markers and leaflets. The most important of these routes, particularly those in and around towns and villages, will be identified by West Lothian Council as Core Path and they will take priority for maintenance and improvement as well as being protected from development or closure. The Council will have until February 2008 to prepare the Draft Core Paths Plan, as defined under the Act and its advisory notes, and there will be consultation with the people and communities of West Lothian as well as with the landowners and farmers whose land these routes will cross.

If you have views on this please contact David Oldham or Cheryl Duncan on 01506 775249 or email david.oldham@westlothian.gov.uk or cheryl.duncan@westlothian.gov.uk

Draft Core Paths Plan - formal consultation

The consultation documents will be available on this site until 18 June 2008 when the formal consultion closes.

West Lothian Draft Core Paths Plan

There have been two informal rounds of public consultation on the actual plan of core paths proposed for West Lothian. This Draft Core Paths Plan (DCCP) sets down the methodology, criteria, objectives and policies whereby this council has produced and will deliver the plan and its Core Path Network. It also describes each of the candidate core paths and maps their routes.

The formal deposit of the DCPP will run from 26 March until 18 June 2008. Hard copies of this plan, accompanied by the Environmental Report of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), will be at all the council’s Customer Information Services and libraries across the district. Hard copies of the full SEA are available at West Lothian House, Livingston and County Buildings, Linlithgow.

Using the Webpage

The complete plan would be a huge file and it is likely that someone using the webpage is interested in a particular part of the district or a specific path. For these reasons the plan has been split into 30 pdf files the bulk of which are the detailed maps and descriptions of each path in the Core Path Network. This includes two files for the SEA. Despite splitting the plan into these smaller files, it can still take some time to open an individual file.

The pdf files for the DCPP, which can be found at the foot of this page, are as follows:

DCPP 1 – Plan 1 The Core Paths Plan Map

DCPP 2 – Written Statement: Introduction, Methodology, Candidate Core Path Criteria and Informal Consultations

DCPP 3 – Plan 2 Response to Informal Consultations

DCPP 4 – Plan 3 The Core Path Diagram 2030

DCPP 5 – Plan 4 Core Path Network

DCPP 6 – Plan 5 Detailed Map Index

If you are looking for a particular area or path it is important that you study Plan 5 and read the supporting text to assist you in deciding which of files 7 to 24 are the ones you wish to view. Each Map is accompanied by a page of text. The paths which each map covers are detailed on the list below.

DCPP 7 – Map A: WL1

DCPP 8 – Map B: WL2a and 2b

DCPP 9 – Map C: WL34

DCPP 10 – Map D: WL3, WL7 and WL35 

DCPP 11 – Map E: WL4 and WL5

DCPP 12 – Map F: WL6

DCPP 13 – Map G: WL11 and WL12

DCPP 14 – Map H: WL21 and WL22

DCPP 15 - Map I: WL20 and WL26

DCPP 16 – Map J: WL23 and WL38

DCPP 17 – Map K: WL19, WL25 and WL39

DCPP 18 – Map L: WL16 and WL24

DCPP 19 – Map M: WL37 and WL40

DCPP 20 – Map N: WL8 and WL15

DCPP 21 – Map O: WL10

DCPP 22 – Map P: WL9, WL17 and WL18

DCPP 23 – Map Q: WL13, WL14 and WL27

DCPP 24 – Map R: WL31 and WL32

DCPP 25 – Map S: WL28, WL29, WL30, WL31 and WL33

DCPP 26 – Map T: WL36

DCPP 27 – Written Statement: Objectives and Policies Next Steps, Glossary and Description of Photos

DCPP 28 – How to Comment

The Draft Core Paths Plan has been subjected to a Strategic Environmental Assessment. This is document is divided into two files.

DCPP 29 – The Environmental Report

DCPP 30 – The Appendices

There have been two informal rounds of public consultation on the actual plan of core paths proposed for West Lothian. This Draft Core Paths Plan (DCCP) sets down the methodology, criteria, objectives and policies whereby this council has produced and will deliver the plan and its Core Path Network. It also describes each of the candidate core paths and maps their routes.

The formal deposit of the DCPP will run from 26 March until 18 June 2008. Copies of this plan, accompanied by the Environmental Report of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), will be at all the council’s Customer Information Services (CIS) and libraries across the district. Copies of the full SEA will be available at West Lothian House, Livingston and County Buildings, Linlithgow.

The enactment of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (LRA) on February 9 2005 imposed a number of duties upon West Lothian Council in its new role as an Access Authority. One of these duties was that, within three years of enactment, it had to prepare a DCPP ready for formal consultation. Guidance from the Scottish Government, which was released upon enactment, made it clear that the plan’s preparation should provide plenty of opportunity for the public and communities to contribute. This advice was reinforced in July 2005 by "Core Paths Plans - A Guide To Good Practice" that was published by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Paths for All Partnership. The council has used these documents to guide its approach to the preparation of this plan and the consultation programme that has led to the final selection of candidate core paths.

The council considers that it has followed the available guidance. In particular, the two rounds of informal consultation offered many ways for the public and groups to comment and contribute to the plan’s preparation. The council has endeavoured to ensure that its plan preparation has been undertaken in a transparent way, by giving feedback to the public on comments made, most notably through two open meetings of the West Lothian Access Forum (WLAF) in March 2006 and one is organised for April 2008. The WLAF is now a statutory body under the LRA and has the sole function of advising the council on access under that act as well as the Countryside (Scotland) Act. The WLAF was established in 1997 and has a membership drawn from groups representing land management, recreation user groups and bodies that are involved in providing access across the district.

Core Path Plan Strategic Environmental Assessment

Under the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005, West Lothian Council, as the responsible authority for the Core Path Plan, are required to consider the need for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to be undertaken on this plan. As such Screening has been undertaken and West Lothian Council’s views on the requirement for SEA were submitted to the Consultation Authorities (Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Historic Scotland) through the Scottish Government’s SEA Gateway. The determination of this assessment, and the conclusion of the Consultation Authorities, is that, under Section 8(1) of the Act, SEA of the CPP is required because the plan may have significant environmental effects. West Lothian Council therefore proposes to commence the SEA process in conjunction with the development of the CPP.  

A copy of the SEA environmental report will accompany the Draft Core Paths Plan at the consultation venues. The full report, including all the appendices, is avalible on this site with hard copies at West Lothian House and County Buildings.

West Lothian Council, County Buildings, High Street, Linlithgow, EH49 7EZ.

West Lothian Council, West Lothian House, Almondvale Boulevard, Livingston, EH54 6QG.