Latest News

User groups save Gloucestershire highway 

November 6, 2023

A precious public ‘green road’ has been protected by user groups combining efforts to resist Gloucestershire County Council’s application to a magistrates’ court to extinguish public rights[1] over Hanover Green Road[2].   Cheltenham magistrates found the track to be necessary for the public to use, particularly on foot and by motorcycle, and therefore could not extinguish…

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We free Cornish footpath from illegal obstruction

August 31, 2023

Through threat of legal action, we have achieved the removal of several illegal obstructions on a public footpath at St Ervan, three miles south-west of Padstow.  Lucy Wilson, our local correspondent for North Cornwall, threatened to go to court for the removal of two unlawful gates on St Ervan footpath 16, south of Treglinnick Farm. …

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We win recorded route in East Sussex 

August 18, 2023

We are celebrating the addition of a 2.3-kilometre restricted byway to the official map of public paths in East Sussex.  The route was claimed, based on historical evidence, by our local correspondent for Lewes, Chris Smith.    The path runs from Robin Post Lane in the north (to the west of the A27 between Hailsham and…

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Brat Tor and Great Links, Dartmoor Photo: Open Spaces Society

Wild camping on Dartmoor—the need to appeal

January 16, 2023

Update: An agreement is being reached between Dartmoor National Park Authority and the landowners to enable people to keep wild camping in Dartmoor National Park without landowners’ permission. While the agreement is welcome and we are pleased the landowners have stepped up, it goes nowhere far enough to meet wild campers’ needs.   It is essential…

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Reopening of blocked footpath in Cornwall follows threat of legal action

August 1, 2022

Following a threat of legal action, a landowner has removed crops which were obstructing the route of a public footpath at St Ervan, three miles south-west of Padstow in Cornwall. The landowner is a St Ervan parish councillor. Cornwall Council, the highway authority, had failed in its legal duty to ensure the path remained unobstructed,…

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