VICTORY IN DORSET
DORSET COUNTY Council will have to review the status of five Rights of Way in the county after a Supreme Court victory for the Trail Riders Fellowship. The TRF is now questioning why the council chose to fight the case in the first place.
It was widely accepted that Bailey Drove (Batcombe), Doles Hill Plantation (Cheselbourne), Crabb’s Barn Lane (Beaminster) and a route between Tarrant Gunville and Chettle and another between Meerhay and Beaminster Down, should be Byways Open to All Traffic throughout their length. Yet Dorset County Council refused applications for these errors on its Definitive Map to be corrected in 2010 – not on the grounds that the corrections themselves were invalid, but because the maps supporting the applications were not Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale, but copies of Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 maps sourced electronically and enlarged to 1:25,000 scale by the applicant.
After earlier hearings in the High Court and Court of Appeal, Dorset County Council’s argument was rejected by the Supreme Court, and the council will now have to process the applications.
The Trail Riders Fellowship understands that Dorset County Council faces a substantial legal bill.
A spokesman for the TRF said: “On its website, Dorset County Council says that ‘it is in the public interest that the Definitive Map and Statement are correct and up to date.’ We are puzzled therefore as to why it has taken five years and three expensive court cases to force Dorset County Council to start to process these corrections.
“Questions need to be asked as to why cash-strapped Dorset County Council was prepared to spend large sums of money preventing members of the public from correcting obvious mistakes and inconsistencies on its Definitive Map.
“Were they acting at the behest of wealthy landowning interests, were their strings being pulled by Westminster politicians, or was there some other reason?”
A summary of the judgment can be downloaded here: https://www.supremecourt.uk/decided-cases/docs/UKSC_2013_0153_PressSummary.pdf
And the judgment in full can be found here: https://www.supremecourt.uk/decidedcases/docs/UKSC_2013_0153_Judgment.pdf
Victory for the Trail Riders Fellowship means victory for all greenlaners, as the Rights of Way they were fighting for were byways, which are open to four wheels as well as two – Ed.