Largest ever rights of way additions to the Definitive Map
Public Law and Judicial Review
Background to the Case
In September 2025 the long-running saga of modifications to the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council Definitive Map at West Merthyr came to an end. The case concerned three proposed Definitive Map Modification Orders (DMMOs) which, between them, sought to add some 143 different public rights of way to the Definitive Map, which would provide formal recognition of the public’s rights to use those routes.
The Rights of Way Claims
The claimed routes were a mixture of footpaths, bridleways, byways open to all traffic, and restricted byways. There were three separate DMMOs (made in 2010, 2011, and 2012) but they all related to the same general area of land extending more than 225 hectares over the largely wooded high ground of Mynydd Aberdar and comprising former iron and coal mines and colliery workings to the west of the A470(T) at Merthyr Tydfil. The area was one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution, and includes the sites of several scheduled monuments relating to early iron works and colliery works from the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the cessation of coal mining activities in the 1960s the area has gradually reverted to nature and now contains a Site of Special Scientific Interest and several Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation. The area provides a rich resource for recreation and outdoor activities but the public’s ability to enjoy that resource has been hampered by the lack of clear recognition of any public rights of way over most of the area.
Investigation and Evidence
A pain-staking investigation by the Council’s legal and rights of way officers into claims by local people that they had used a multiplicity of routes traversing the area over many years, together with research into historic records of fomer industrial activities, chapels, and colliery housing, led to the making of the three DMMOs. These were opposed by various landowners, with the objections due to be heard at a lengthy public inquiry in summer 2020. The disruptions occasioned by the Covid pandemic, together with the narrowing of disputed issues with the main objector, led to the inquiry being converted into an extended written representations procedure in 2022.
Interim Decision
In January 2023 the PEDW Inspector issued an interim decision confirming the DMMOs, with modifications. The modifications process was itself extensive and it was not until July 2025, some 15 years after the making of the first DMMO, that the Council was able to advertise the final confirmation of the DMMOs, adding some 131 additional routes to the Definitive Map. The legal challenge period to the confirmation of the DMMOs ended in September 2025, without any court challenge being made, and the additions to the Definitive Map have therefore now taken effect. It is believed that the DMMOs constitute the largest ever single addition to a Definitive Map anywhere in Wales or in England since the introduction of the modern system of recording of public rights of way in 1949.
Michael Bedford KC and Ben Du Feu acted for Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council as Order Making Authority throughout this lengthy process.
