Public Footpath on our Land

[Hannah]

I hope nobody minds a question not related to the house, but we could really do with some advice from anyone who may have had similar experiences.

We have a public footpath which runs along the boundary of our land, and then cuts in about 10 metres through our land at the rear of the house, and out the other side.

We would like to move this footpath so that it follows our boundary and meets the existing footpath after the rear boundary of our land.

We have been advised that the rights of way people are very hard to please.. and if we ask and they say no we will be lucky to ever get permission....

Has anyone had any similar experiences or any advise which may be of some use. Thanks.

 

[Nemesis]

You would have to have a very good reason for moving it, and both the Open Spaces Soc and Ramblers may object...

http://www.somerset.gov.uk/somerset/ete/rightsofway/changing/index.cfm?override=subtopic&infoid=3135


http://www.oss.org.uk/rights%20of%20way/public%20paths.htm

 

[Hannah]

Thanks for these links - your council seems a lot better than ours, there's no info on their website!

Purely selfish reasons for wanting to move it - we don't want people walking through our back garden.

The area we want to move in to is grazing land adjacent to our garden. This is also owned by us. There is then 8 acres of open fields, hence why we would like to move it and not provide access through the garden.

 

[Nemesis]

It's not my council, but it's useful info.

Is the RoW very near your house? Moving it isn't a routine matter...

 

[Nemesis]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/x-ray/allarticles/stories/5p16_questionx.shtml

as shown in this article.

 

[Hannah]

The ROW follows the boundary of the left hand side of our property. At a minimum it is only 5 metres from the house, but this is not the part we wish to move, this is already in the grazing land.

The part we wish to move starts to travel on to our land about 20 metres from the back of the house and runs for approx 30 metres across our land before moving back again to the grazing land and through the back of the field in to woods.

 

[Nemesis]

I think you have to be prepared to make a case but accept it will not be easy... there is clearly no public benefit here really...

 

[thiambal]

You could claim that you are naturists and want to protect the public from copping an eyefull!

No, well maybe not!

 

[David Q]

In our area a path used to go through a farmyard. The owner decided to convert the outbuildings to residential and successfully applied to move the RoW around the back of the outbuildings to prevent walkers going past their front doors. The developer had to provide a new fenced path and pay for the planning notices etc. So it can be done. In my view it shouldnt have been done as the only benefit was in making his development easier to sell, neither the council nor any path user got any benefit - just made the path longer.

 

[Nemesis]

It can be done - but it can be expensive, and if anyone objects it may have to be decided not by the local authority but by a Gov Inspector.

So it's not a simple process to modify the definitive map.