BOATS – Byways Open to All Traffic

A byway denotes a highway that the general public has a right to use with a vehicle (or other means of transport) but sadly these only account for 2% of England’s rights of way.

These are often referred to as ‘Green Lanes’ and can be identified in Kent and Sussex by the signs below but it is often the case that these may not be clearly marked and are often disguised by unsympathetic land owners.

With this website I intend to identify all of the unrestricted Byways in Kent and Sussex in order to increase peoples awareness and the locations of these great British assets.

When I was growing up these routes were generally referred to as RUPPS (roads used a public paths where vehicle access was assumed) and there was an abundance of them. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 had decided to reclassify these into either a BOAT or Restricted Byway. The decision of which was most suitable generally involved a lot of hearings and looking into historical data which is clearly an extremely time consuming process. So with only a minority of these proven to have historical public vehicle access (byway) the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 decided that on 2 May 2006 all the RUPPs awaiting discussion/decision would be reclassified as Restricted Byways prohibiting the use of vehicles.

Councils took differing stances on this and luckily, to their credit, KCC and ESCC put a lot of time and effort into restoring and maintaining these historical rights of way and the location of these BOATS can be found within this website – I hope to see you on one soon!