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Public Rights of Way Progress

County Parishes RoWs LTotal Ldesignation Lprow_ref GIS Update
Bath and North East Somerset 86 2104 886 km 641 km 72% 416 km 46% 2019‑11‑26 3y
Buckinghamshire 169 5014 3345 km 1265 km 37% 108 km 3% 2020‑05‑14 2y
Cambridgeshire 236 4116 3229 km 1708 km 52% 1132 km 35% 2023‑01‑23 2m
Cornwall 212 6598 4440 km 2630 km 59% 1837 km 41% 2022‑06‑30 8m
Derbyshire 280 9882 5225 km 4779 km 91% 1355 km 25% 2022‑06‑05 9m
Devon 426 6611 5016 km 3815 km 76% 3544 km 70% 2022‑07‑18 8m
Dorset 266 6907 4626 km 3107 km 67% 2054 km 44% 2022‑07‑18 8m
East Riding of Yorkshire 171 1838 1624 km 911 km 56% 63 km 3% 2018‑02‑02 5y
East Sussex 109 7904 3193 km 1234 km 38% 679 km 21% 2022‑02‑17 13m
Essex 314 10170 6408 km 3344 km 52% 2512 km 39% 2023‑02‑28 4w
Gloucestershire 266 10067 5521 km 2706 km 49% 1370 km 24% 2022‑11‑14 4m
Hampshire 274 7400 4845 km 3992 km 82% 575 km 11% 2022‑05‑05 10m
Herefordshire 246 4581 3494 km 1838 km 52% 1155 km 33% 2020‑11‑06 2y
Hertfordshire 137 5523 3159 km 2712 km 85% 2334 km 73% 2020‑09‑07 2y
Isle of Wight 20 1438 856 km 860 km 100% 859 km 100% 2017‑07‑21 5y
Kent 62 9746 6897 km 2644 km 38% 1281 km 18% 2022‑02‑28 12m
Lancashire 233 11419 5547 km 5751 km 103% 5538 km 99% 2018‑01‑23 5y
Lincolnshire 543 4742 4015 km 185 km 4% 46 km 1% 2021‑06‑22 21m
Norfolk 546 5869 3880 km 3446 km 88% 3435 km 88% 2022‑12‑13 3m
North Yorkshire 730 12817 10264 km 4975 km 48% 104 km 1% 2022‑06‑30 8m
Oxfordshire 323 6052 4250 km 2589 km 60% 1403 km 33% 2023‑02‑16 6w
Somerset 341 9818 6150 km 5695 km 92% 5563 km 90% 2021‑09‑28 18m
South Gloucestershire 46 2292 1264 km 625 km 49% 407 km 32% 2021‑11‑29 15m
Suffolk 484 10444 5747 km 2896 km 50% 2583 km 44% 2022‑10‑11 5m
Warwickshire 18 3318 2839 km 2268 km 79% 1305 km 45% 2022‑12‑29 3m
Wiltshire 259 8350 5923 km 2393 km 40% 391 km 6% 2022‑12‑02 3m
Worcestershire 198 15695 4589 km 2628 km 57% 1458 km 31% 2022‑08‑16 7m

Note that the "Ldesignation" lengths are only approximate (and will normally be an over-estimate) as the tool does not check precise parishes for ways with a designation tag but no prow_ref tag. Consequently, it includes any OSM ways of this type that fall within the rectangular boundaing box of each parish, rather than just those that are contained within the parish boundaries.

About this tool

This tool takes information about Public Rights of Way from four sources and flags up possible errors / omissions / things to check. Currently only a handful of counties are available, but hopefully more will be added in due course. The data sources are:

  1. Official GIS data from County Councils. Many councils now have digital versions of the legal 'Definitive Map' document they are obliged to maintain. Many have made their data files available fir re-use under a suitable licence (see my open data page). Vector routes, path numbers, designations, lengths and bounding boxes can be extracted automatically from data files. I've started using the files from Barry Cornelius's rowmaps for this, as Barry has already done the hard work in converting the myriad of different formats from the councils into a standard KML format. Updates to this data depend on how frequently the corresponding council provides updates. I would like to have new data for ecah county at least once a year, but this isn't always available.
  2. Volunteer-Mapped data from OpenStreetMap. Path numbers, designations, lengths, bounding boxes, last update details, etc. can be extracted automatically on a parish by parish basis using the XAPI. The tool will extract all ways with a prow_ref=* tag within the parish's bounding box. The data from OSM is updated on a rolling basis with each parish getting an update roughly once every couple of weeks. There is a button at the bottom of each parish page to request a quicker update — which will usually be within half-an-hour.
  3. Definitive Statements. These are written documents providing textural descriptions of each Public Right of Way. Some councils have only paper records, but many now have digital versions. Sometimes these are unstructured formatted text documents (and so data needs to be manually extracted) but other councils have databases or spreadsheets (which allow automatic extraction of route numbers and statuses.
  4. Manual classification of OSM completion level. This would be entered by tool users, after comparing the official data with the current mapping in OSM.

I've got scripts to do the extraction from first two sources set up. I can do the third behind the scenes, and there is an experimental interface set up for the fourth. Get in touch if you would like to try this out.

With the data the tool can then flag up issues such as:

The tool is currently under development, so various key bits of functionality are not implemented yet. For details see the Known Issues and To Do List.

Suggested uses for OSM Mapping

However, please do not use the PRoW GIS data alone to map routes in OSM. The data may not be completely accurate or well-aligned, and it is important that we capture the physical presence and accessibility of routes on the ground too. Simply copying the Council's GIS data into OSM adds very little to the map. Correctly mapping a path with the condition of the surface, adjacent hedges, gates and stiles is much more useful. See also my advice for routes not following the definitive line.

Adding new authorities

I intend to add more areas as and when I have time to do so. The main constraints though are having access to the data and it being available for re-use under a suitable licence for use in OpenStreetMap. The basic requirements are:

For my own use (and for anyone else who's interested) I've written a set of import instructions outlining the process of adding a new county to the tool.

It is also useful if the authority makes available its Definitive Statements, List of Streets and a list of Traffic Regulation Orders affecting Public Rights of Way. See my Council PRoW Open Data page for an incomplete list of what is available from each authority.