Access Officers – How do you recompense for land taken out of production when putting in paths?
The CNPA are extending the Speyside Way. The new route will go through some fields that are stocked (sheep/cattle) at least part, if not all, the year. Some of it is managed or improved grassland – other sections unimproved. We want to put in new aggregate path suitable for a wide range of users and protected from damage by stock and vehicles so we are looking at fencing the route off – along field margins preferably and taking about a 3m corridor to achieve this. Over the whole length of the SW extension (about 22kms) I expect this will affect about 2-3km of it.
This takes land out of production and we are looking at some form of recompense for this plus disturbance to land managers.
Does anyone have formulas they use to assess this – do you ‘buy’ land or go into annualised agreements? What do you use as your basis of valuation – SFP, capital values etc?
Can you respond to me at [email protected]? Thanks all.