Carol Ramsden

Carol has specialised in public rights of way law for over 30 years.

She helps clients with the wide variety of problems created by the complex and archaic nature of much public rights of way legislation. Her special focus is on securing changes to the existing public rights of way network. Recorded and claimed routes can severely affect the privacy and security of private dwellings, impact adversely on the needs of modern agriculture and constrain – or even defeat – development.

Her clients range from private individuals to large country estates and farms, and from self-builders to national house builders and local Councils. She has an enviable record of achieving changes by knowledgeable and effective consultation and negotiation – and avoiding public inquiries.

Carol also advises on managing both formal and informal public access, on maintenance and enforcement issues and on how to react to claims that unrecorded public rights of way exist.

Carol is based in our Ipswich office but has a national practice and travels widely. She currently has clients as far apart as Yorkshire, Kent and Wales. She also takes full advantage of video telephone calls to advise on public access issues where a visit is impractical but understanding the character of a route and the surrounding area is critical to her advice.

Experience & education

Distinction in Masters degree: Public Rights of Way and Countryside Access Management in 2004.
Director of IPROW from 2004 to 2007.
Parish Clerk from 2004 to 2024.
Joined Birketts in 2005.
Joined Defra’s Stakeholders Working Group as a landowner representative in 2022, to press for the implementation of pending public rights of way legislation and contributed to the ‘Presumptions Guidance’ published in August 2023.