Right of way ‘Private’ path used for 20 years
AGROUP of residents is applying to get a path on privately owned land near Blaise Hamlet turned into a public right of way.
The path runs through a copse connecting Woodgrove Road with Hallen Close in Henbury, and residents say they have been using it for well over 20 years.
But, in April, signs marked “private land” appeared on a stretch of the path on land owned by Bristolbased building company Stride Brothers.
The company said the signs were erected after someone dumped some garden waste in the copse, harming a “lovely haven for wildlife”.
But residents believe the builders want to deter members of the public from using the land ahead of a development bid.
The disputed path sits in a ditch below a field also owned by Stride Brothers and leased to Riding for the Disabled.
The company applied last year to get the land designated for housing development, indicating that they wanted to build 140 houses on it.
But Bristol City Council turned down the request, as the land is in a Cllr Mark Weston, Wendy Hull and Les Hull beside the entrance to a path connecting Woodgrove Road and Hallen Close in Henbury. Left, one of the new signs Conservation Area and is a designated already runs beside the copse. site of special scientific interest Wendy Hull, who lives on (SSSI). Woodgrove Road with her husband
Now, with the backing of local Les, is co-ordinating the PROW ward councillor Mark Weston, the application and held a meeting of residents are applying to the council residents at her house two weeks to have the path designated as ago. an official public right of way She said about half of the 20 people (PROW). who attended the meeting said
They would have to prove that they had been using the path for at they had been using the path for least 20 years and others had been the past 20 years to succeed. using it for around 18 years.
An official PROW linking One resident has been using it for Woodgrove Road and Hallen Close more than 40 years, she said.
Mrs Hull said: “We’ve got people here who’ve been using it since the 1970s.
“I just don’t like the fact that people are being stopped from using a facility which enables them to walk through to the shops in a safe way and much quicker than going along a very busy main road.”
According to local historian Andrew Chugg, the path is of historical significance because it runs through an ancient drainage fosse of a Roman road to Gloucester.
The existing PROW follows the course of the Roman road through the field owned by the Stride Brothers where RDA horses graze.
Mrs Hull said: “With [the path through the copse] closed, we would have to walk through a field that’s got horses in it. That’s not everybody’s cup of tea.”
Cllr Weston, Conservative representative for Henbury and Brentry, said: “I fully support the residents of Woodgrove Road and the wider Henbury, Blaise area.”
Asked whether Stride Brothers still wanted to develop the land, company secretary Richard Stride said: “The signs are merely trying to remind people this is private land.
“The dumping of garden waste indicated there were some people who were not aware of this.
“It’s a lovely haven for wildlife with some nice mature trees and we wish to keep it that way.”
Cllr Weston said he was skeptical of the brothers’ claim that they want to protect the wildlife in the copse, saying it was a “smokescreen” for their development plans.
“You have a large area that is conservation status, SSSI [site of special scientific interest] and yet they want to turn that area into housing,” he said.
“And then in the space of a few months - they’ve been pushing housing, housing, housing - and suddenly they go: ‘actually, now we’re conservationists and we want to create a bat and bird sanctuary.’ “I believe the term is hypocrisy.” A council officer said the disputed path was not a PROW so it was up to the landowner to allow public access by agreeing for it to be designated as a “permissive path”.
However, the officer said, members of the public could apply for the footpath to become a designated PROW “if it can be shown that the public have used the path uninterrupted and without permission for more than 20 years before the public’s right was first brought into question”.