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We are celebrating the newly-reopened path which leads from Cwmparc, Treorchy, in Rhondda Cynon Taf to the hills above. The popular public highway was illegally obstructed by locked gates, two metres high, in February.
Before and after the removal of the illegal gates. Photo: Open Spaces Society
The community, with the society’s support, has campaigned vigorously ever since, naming their crusade ‘Gate-gate’.
On Friday 13 June, the landowners reopened the path after a warning from Rhondda Cynon Taf Council, the highway authority, which has a legal duty to protect public paths.
In April the council served an enforcement notice on the landowners requiring them to remove the obstruction—but they failed to do so in the time allowed. On Thursday 12 June Andrew Morgan, the council leader, decided that the council should contact the landowners to warn them that, if they did not remove the gates over the weekend, the council would dispatch its own contractors to remove them. That did the trick.
Says our member Richard Clarke, a management consultant, who led the campaign: ‘We are delighted and relieved that the council has upheld the public’s right to use and enjoy this route. It might have wobbled and opted for a temporary traffic regulation order (TRRO) to stop up the route, but fortunately I could quote the Open Spaces Society’s recent high court victory which exposed the abuse of the TRRO process by West Northamptonshire Council, demonstrating that TRROs are not to be used lightly.
‘We are grateful to Andrew Morgan for writing a firm letter to the landowners, and to the Open Spaces Society and its case officer, Helen Clayton, for their steadfast help and support.’
Comments Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘We congratulate Richard Clarke and his taskforce for their excellent and unremitting campaign. It has been exemplary, and a fine example to other communities facing similar threats to their precious paths. We look forward to a celebratory walk on this wonderful route.’
Ramblers Cymru also assisted with the case.