Farmers and landowners rights
Farmers and landowners are responsible for:
- ensuring established stiles and gates are in a safe condition
for public use
- keeping paths free from obstructions and overhanging
vegetation
- reinstating footpaths and bridleways across fields two weeks
after the first disturbance (ploughing or cultivation) and within
24 hours of it being disturbed again
- keeping rights of way free of crops to legal minimum
widths
- ensuring that vegetation overhanging or encroaching from the
sides is cut back
- maintaining stiles and gates so they are easily used by the
public. Where stiles and gates are no longer required they can be
removed with the agreement of the local PRoW officer.
Farmers and landowners should:
- know where public rights of way cross their land
- never plough or disturb a public right of way along a field
edge
- obtain consent from Kent County Council before erecting new
stiles and gates
- never plough a byway, under any circumstance
- provide adequate bridges where new ditches are made or existing
ones widened
- not put plain, barbed or electrified wire across a right of way
(it is not necessarily illegal to run wire along the side of a
right of way, but some types of wire are considered a nuisance to
the public using the path)
- never deter the public from using a public right of way,
including the erection of misleading signs or markings
- not keep any animals that are known to be dangerous in a field
through which a public right of way passes
- not keep beef bulls over 10 months of age in a field that
contains a right of way unless accompanied by cows or heifers.
*Dairy bulls over 10 months are never to be put in a field that
contains a right of way. The following are classified as dairy
breeds: Ayrshire, Jersey, Dairy Shorthorn, Kerry, British Friesian,
British Holstein and Guernsey.
If in doubt, please refer to our
bull chart (PDF, 52k).