A claim that 4 public footpaths should be recognised through a wood at Tenterden in Kent has been rejected by the Secretary of State's Inspector.
After a three day public inquiry in January and February, the Inspector agreed with objectors that the evidence claiming use of specific routes remained unclear following, in the words of the Inspector, an "exhaustive cross-examination" of claimants by Michael Wood representing the objector, Lakehurst Developments Ltd.
There was no dispute that local people had walked in the woods for some years but it was not enough to prove that public rights of way had been established.
Michael Wood of ET Landnet, a specialist company in the field of public and private rights of way welcomed the decision.
He said "Cases such as these demonstrate that it is essential to understand the process of claiming and recording public rights of way to be able to make a proper challenge at public inquiry. The Council failed to understand the need for clarity in the routes that people had walked and they did not even inspect the claimed paths until after they had decided to make a formal order."
ET Landnet recently acted for the Aln Valley Railway in Northumberland in the successful defeat of a claimed right of way along a redundant railway line. The company continues to win cases at inquiry for landowners across England and Wales.
