Agenda item

Information report to brief the Committee on a recent Public Hearing and the outcome.

The Committee received an information report on the outcome of a public hearing to determine a Definitive Map Modification Order.

The Public Rights of Way Committee at its meeting on 17 December 2012 approved an Order for the addition of Public Footpath No.15 in the parish of Wybunbury to the Definitive Map and Statement as it was considered that there user evidence was sufficient to support the existence of a public footpath. 

A Modification Order was made on 21 February 2013 and advertised on 4 April 2013.  Nine formal objections were received to the Order, one of which was later withdrawn.  The objections were not challenging the duration or frequency of use by the public but were mostly concerned over the recorded width of one section of the footpath.  Some objectors also referred to an additional path which went diagonally across the field owned by Natural England (from point F on the Order plan in a north-easterly direction) and these objectors claimed the Order route should follow this line rather than along the field edge.

As the remaining eight objections were not withdrawn consequently a file of the relevant information was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in March 2014.  A public inquiry was held on 4 March 2015 at Wybunbury Village Hall. Of the eight objectors only Mrs B Colbert and her son Mr P Colbert were present, representing themselves.  Cheshire East Council was represented by Miss Ruth Stockley of Counsel (Kings Chambers, Manchester).  The appointed inspector was Mr Alan Beckett.

It was the Council’s approach that the evidence was sufficient to justify making an Order to record the claimed route as a public footpath.  The basis of the evidence in support of the Order was that of user evidence.  It was the Council’s case that under Section 31 of the Highways Act 1980, the way had been used on foot for a full period of 20 years without force, secrecy or permission and without sufficient evidence to indicate that there had been no intention to dedicate during that period.

Mrs Colbert had disputed the width of the path for the section between the edge of the barn and point F on Plan No. WCA/005A and contended that for this section the width of the path should be recorded as being between 1.3 metres and the maximum width suggested by evidence.  It was also submitted that where the path dog-legged around the eastern end of the barn the path would not have been 2.3 metres as a field gate had stood in the centre of the end of the barn to control the movement of livestock.

The hearing was closed and concluded on 4 November 2014 following an accompanied site visit.  The Inspector issued a decision letter on 26 November 2014 in which he confirmed the Order, with one modification. This was to record a stile at SJ 6991 4995 and this had been inserted into Part II of the Schedule under the heading ‘Limitations or Conditions of Use.’  The Inspector’s overall conclusion was that the evidence was sufficient to show that, on the balance of probabilities, a public footpath subsisted over the Order route. 

RESOLVED: 

That the report be noted.</AI10>

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