Issue - meetings

To consider the application for the addition of a public footpath between Public Footpaths No.4 and 11 in the parish of Wybunbury

The Committee received a report detailing an application made by Mr K Billington of Main Road, Wybunbury to modify the Definitive Map and Statement for the parish of Wybunbury by adding a currently unrecorded route as a Public Footpath.

The application for the addition of a public footpath between Public Footpaths No. 4 and 11 - between points A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H on Plan No. WCA/005 -   was made in 2007.  The application was supported by 31 user evidence forms.  

Points C-F of the claimed route ran behind the plot of The Hollies 14 Main Road.  The owner, Mrs Colbert, also owned the field to the back of the property – to the north of the claimed route.  Part of the claimed route itself between points A-F was not registered with the land registry.  Mrs Colbert had showed Officer the barn at the end of her garden, adjacent to which was the claimed route.  It was stated that the barn had been unstable since 2007 when scaffolding was erected at the side of the barn to repair the roof.  Her late husband had blocked off the route and put up signs warning of the danger and advising that the path was closed.  It was this action which had prompted the application as it was discovered that the path was not recorded on the Definitive Map.

Natural England owned the land between points F-G-H and the Reserve Manager had stated that they had no objection to the path.  They would also like to fence off the footpath between points F and G as this would avoid problems with dogs running after the cattle they grazed on the land.

Section 53 (2)(b) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, required that the Council keep the Definitive Map and Statement under continuous review and make such modifications to the Map and Statement as appear requisite in consequence of the occurrence of certain events.

One such event, accordance with section 53(3)(c)(i), was

“(c) the discovery by the authority of evidence which (when considered with all other relevant evidence available to them) shows:-

(i) that a right of way which is not shown in the map and statement subsists or is reasonably alleged to subsist over land in the area to which the map relates….”

The evidence could consist of documentary/historical evidence or user evidence or a mixture of both.  All the evidence had to be evaluated and weighed and a conclusion reached whether, on the ‘balance of probabilities’ the alleged rights subsist or are reasonably alleged to subsist. Any other issues, such as safety, security, suitability, desirability or the effects on property or the environment, were not relevant to the decision.

As the evidence in support was of application was user evidence, section 31(1) of the Highways Act 1980 applied:-

“Where a way… has been actually enjoyed by the public as of right and without interruption for a full period of twenty years, the way is deemed to have been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27