LEMOs

What is a LEMO?

The definitive map and statement can only be changed by an order made by the surveying authority (the unitary authority or county council for an area). The order is known as a ‘Definitive Map Modification Order’ or DMMO because it modifies the definitive map and statement for the area, for example, by adding a path or changing a path from footpath to bridleway.

While most orders are based on historical evidence or collections of user statements that need to be assessed carefully with any counter evidence, there is a class of order where the order just comes into effect instantly on being made. This is the ‘legal event modification order’ or LEMO.

Legislation

The legislation sets out the rules for LEMOs. The sections are taken from s.53 Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Sub-section (2) sets out the duty of the surveying authority to keep the definitive map and statement up to date by making modification orders. Then, sub-section (6) provides that orders that make changes described in sub-section (3)(a) shall take effect on their being made.

Sub-section (2)(a) is set out as:
53(3) The events referred to in subsection (2) are as follows-
(a) the coming into operation of any enactment or instrument, or any other event, whereby-

(i) a highway shown or required to be shown in the map and statement has been authorised to be stopped up, diverted, widened or extended;

(ii) a highway shown or required to be shown in the map and statement as a highway of a particular description has ceased to be a highway of that description; or

(iii) a new right of way has been created over land in the area to which the map relates, being a right of way such that the land over which the right subsists is a public path or a restricted byway.

Common Uses

The most common uses of a LEMO are to record changes to the path network made by public path creation orders, diversion orders and extinguishment orders, and to record paths for which there is a public path creation agreement.

In these cases, the surveying authority should simply proceed to make a LEMO as soon as the relevant order or agreement has come into effect. This could be a later date than the order’s confirmation or agreement’s signature, for example a diversion order might provide for an order to come into effect once the new route is certified to have been constructed, so the LEMO would wait until that time.

Cautions

1. Some authorities make LEMOs only when they are about to consolidate (and reprint) their definitive map and statement. This action does not appear to comply with the s.53(2) duty to keep the map and statement up to date. It also runs the risk that landowners will be inconvenienced following a diversion order as the order is proof of the new route and the definitive map is conclusive proof (until amended) of the right to use the old route, meaning there are legally two routes until the LEMO is made.

2. For very old legal events, an authority may say that an evidential investigation is needed in case there were subsequent changes. However, if the landowner and users all agree that the legal event happened and what its effect was (as older orders can be less precise than the equivalent would be today) then an authority will normally wish to use the LEMO route as it is much cheaper in staff time and direct costs than an evidential order.