www.ramblers.org.uk

Ramblers' Association celebrate legal victory as Stockport Council accused of 'ineptitude and indifference'

18 December 2007
 

The Ramblers’ Association (RA) is celebrating after a five-year battle to prevent Stockport Council closing down the historic Stringer Street Steps ended with victory in the Magistrates’ Court.

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and Nelson Tool Company Ltd first applied to close the steps in 2002, on the grounds that they weren’t needed for public use. However, a coalition of local residents and pedestrian groups, including the Ramblers’ Association and the Open Spaces Society, opposed the application on the grounds that the public had, in fact, been prevented from using the steps, which the council is duty-bound to maintain, because the Council’s own policy had caused the steps’ to fall into disrepair and obstruction. A petition demanding that the steps remain open because of the vital link they provide to local amenities was signed by over 80 local residents.

District Judge Berg accused the local council for “a combination of ineptitude and indifference” and for “trying to have their cake and eat it.” In handing down the decision he commented: “The Council cannot gain an advantage as a result of their own wrongdoing and rely on what flows from that wrongdoing to show an absence of use by members of the public, and because of that, assert that the route is therefore unnecessary.”

The Ramblers have since been awarded over £30,000 in damages. Stockport Council must appear before the court again in March 2008 and produce a plan for reinstating the steps.

Kate Ashbrook, General Secretary of the Open Spaces Society and Chairman of the Ramblers’ Association, said: “The Stringer Street Steps battle reflected an all-too-common tendency of local councils to stifle grass-roots opposition to unpopular path closures by pursuing cases through the costly and intimidating Magistrates’ Court.

“District Judge Berg’s decision to retain Stringer Street Steps as a public highway upholds community well-being and access rights over the interests of private landowners. Stockport Council has incurred a heavy financial penalty for using the Magistrates’ Court to pursue this case. This signals to Councils nationwide that they must no longer use the courts to bypass democratic procedures.”

District Judge Berg handed down his decision on 10th December 2007.