Ramblers and hill walkers are poised to fight a series of legal battles against landowners blocking access to Britain's countryside.
Campaigners say that many of the growing number of disputes are caused by people with “money and prestige” buying property and refusing to recognise established footpaths.
They have also accused owners of increasingly exploiting health and safety laws to block routes. In many cases, landowners argue that they must refuse access to protect themselves from being sued by walkers who might injure themselves.
Last week, a public inquiry was opened into the decision by a City stockbroker to bar the public from using traditional footpaths through his country estate in Kent.
The Ramblers – formerly known as the Ramblers’ Association – say there are dozens of similar disputes brewing across the country.
A spokesman for the organisation said: “Often the problem arises when new landowners buy land and try to get paths diverted or closed, even when they have been used for many years. On other occasions its people with money or prestige who simply refuse to recognise public access until ordered to do so by the Planning Inspectorate.
He added: “It doesn’t matter if the landowner is a celebrity, a multinational corporation or nobility; nobody has the right to summarily close a public right of way.”
right of way.” Among the forthcoming cases is one from Cheadle, in Staffordshire, where a local resident is taking her case to a public inquiry later this month in a bid to have a footpath used by villagers designated as a public right of way, after the owner blocked access to it.
In Richmond, south west London, locals are fighting to regain access to a path near the River Thames, previously used by them to get to Ham Common and into Richmond Park.
A dispute in Swanland, Humberside, where walkers want to be allowed to use a path across a primary school playing field also seems likely to go to a public inquiry.
However, it is the battle of Vixen Tor, one of Dartmoor’s most famous landmarks, that has become the most notable cause célèbre among campaigners.
For generations the site, which includes a Bronze Age kistvaen – or burial chamber – has been a highlight for ramblers walking across one of Britain’s finest wilderness landscapes.
But in 2003, Mary Alford, a farmer who had bought the land, threw a barbed wire fence around it and barred all access to the granite outcrop. In so doing Mrs Alford sparked a legal battle which comes to a head at a public inquiry in November.
For the previous 30 years, an agreement with the Tor’s previous owners, the Windeatt Estate, had allowed public access to the site, but Mrs Alford claimed there was no such legal public right of way.
She said she had been advised by her insurance company to close the site as she could be liable if anybody injured themselves while walking or climbing there. An initial public inquiry, staged in 2005, backed Mrs Alford.
Last year Devon County Council’s Public Rights of Way Committee unanimously called for two footpaths to be opened across Vixen Tor on the grounds that a right of way had existed before Mrs Alford’s purchase of the land.
This was vigorously opposed by Mrs Alford, who has appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, forcing a public inquiry into the case.
Mrs Alford, whose family has farmed on Dartmoor for six generations, said: “There is no right of way. There was permitted access with the previous owners, but we bought the land to farm it and that’s how we want to keep it. Animals and intensive public use just don’t mix.”
Tim Sandles, 53, a local blogger and rambler, said: “Vixen Tor is a very imposing place associated with a number of local legends, but at the moment its surrounded by barbed wire and keep out signs. I can see why landowners might be anxious about walkers’ dogs worrying their sheep, but other landowners in Dartmoor don’t seem to have a problem.”
The dispute echoes that in rural Kent which last week saw City stockbroker Tim Steel go head to head with residents wanting to exercise what they said was their age old right to use footpaths across his land.
Local tradition has it the paths date as far back as Chaucer’s day and were in fact used by the pilgrims whose stories he chronicled in The Canterbury Tales.
Kent County council ruled the tracks had been in use for at least 20 years and were therefore a right of way.
Mr Steel appealed against the decision, saying the site was an area of Special Scientific Interest and there were plenty of alternative footpaths for residents to use.
The inquiry is expected to rule on the case in the next few weeks.
Patrick Sawer:The Telegraph:8-8-10 Post Title
→Ramblers take on landowners over access.
Post URL
→https://national-grid-news.blogspot.com/2010/08/ramblers-take-on-landowners-over-access.html
Visit National-grid-news for Daily Updated Wedding Dresses Collection
