Judge orders removal of gates across ancient path, Somerset
 Item on Ramblers' Association National website - 12th February 2009

Walkers in Somerset are celebrating being able to walk freely along an ancient drovers’ way once more, after a judge at Bristol Crown Court this week ordered local landowners to remove the gates that have obstructed Barcroft Lane since 2004.

In a judgment delivered at the Court this week, His Honour Judge Longman ordered that the intimidating gates near the village of South Petherton, Somerset, must be removed.

The case began in June 2006, when Yeovil Magistrates’ Court found the landowner, Brian Herrick, guilty of wilful obstruction but did not order the illegal gates to be removed. In 2007, the Magistrate’s Court ordered the Herricks to move the obstruction after local walker, Peter Kidner (1), sought a court order against Somerset County Council to move them to action on the gates. The Herricks appealed against the Magistrates’ order, and the case moved to Bristol Crown Court.

Peter, a member of the Open Spaces Society (OSS) who supported the case with the Ramblers said after the judgment: “I am delighted with the outcome, and am most grateful for the efforts of all those in my legal team, my witnesses, the Open Spaces Society, the Ramblers and all those who supported me in other ways.

“Walkers will once again be able to enjoy walking this key footpath without hindrance and the fear that they were trespassing on private property. I feel sure that the county council has learnt valuable lessons for this issue and will support its officers better in future.”

Kate Ashbrook, Ramblers Chairman and General Secretary of the OSS, who appeared as a witness in court, comments: ‘This is a tremendous result. Not only does it restore Barcroft Lane for public use and enjoyment but it will also encourage all those who are faced with trying to reopen illegally blocked paths, and to remove intimidating structures from them. It goes to show that landowners and local authorities must not allow our public highways to be blocked—they are for the use and enjoyment of all.

‘We congratulate Peter Kidner on his courage and persistence in seeing this through.’

Notes

1. The law which enables a member of the public to serve a notice on a council to reopen an illegally-blocked path is section 130A of the Highways Act 1980. Once the council receives the notice (form 1) it has 28 days in which to respond, informing the complainant what, if any action, it proposes to take. If the complainant is not satisfied, he may apply to the magistrates’ court for an order requiring the authority to take, within a certain period, such steps as may be specified in the order to secure the removal of the obstruction. Peter Kidner followed this process, and won in the magistrates’ court, but the landowner appealed to the crown court.

2. The Open Spaces Society (formally the Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society) was founded in 1865 and is Britain’s oldest national conservation body. It campaigns to protect common land, village greens, open spaces and public paths, and people’s right to enjoy them.