81-year-old East Devon ramblers wins ten year public footpath campaign
13 March 2008
An 81 year old East Devon Ramblers’ Association (RA) member,
Eric Mawer, is celebrating the end of a ten-year campaign to
make Devon County Council publish orders as a first step towards
legally record historic routes as public rights of way near to
his home in Colyton, East Devon. In the light of a critical
ombudsman’s report which reprimands the council for “delays and
broken promises of action” towards Eric Mawer, the council have
agreed to make the necessary footpath orders and fund £500 of
new footpath work in the locality.
Eric Mawer has been campaigning for Devon County Council to add
the River Coly footpaths to the ‘definitive’ rights of way map
since 1989, after researching public use of the ancient
footpaths at his local public record office. In 1997 Eric made a
formal claim for the paths, and when the Council reached a
decision not to make the orders, Eric appealed against the
Council’s decision to the Secretary of State for the
Environment. The Council lost the appeal and in 2005 the
Secretary of State directed the Council to make the relevant
orders.
The Council have taken 2.5 years to publish the orders, during
which time Mr Mawer repeatedly approached the Council.
Mr Mawer comments: “Devon County Council’s delay in publishing
and implementing these important orders to record historic paths
as public rights of way has denied me – and others – the chance
to enjoy walking these paths, in this active lifetime at least.”
He continues: “However, The Ramblers’ Association is pleased
that the Council has agreed to implement the Ombudsman’s
recommendations. Devon County Council does much good rights of
way work and we hope that this investigation will give renewed
impetus to their definitive map work, which is very important.
As the Ombudsman said, our complaint did raise issues of public
interest, affecting all those desiring access to the countryside
in the Council’s area. The Government is encouraging everyone to
take more exercise and our rights of way provide all of us with
the opportunity to walk, cycle and ride away from busy roads.”
The Ombudsman’s Report, published March 6th 2008, finds that the
Council’s delays and broken promises of action caused injustice
to Mr Mawer. To remedy this, the Council has agreed to:
• apologise for the delays:
• fund £500 of new footpath work in the area in recognition of
the delays, uncertainty and inconvenience in pursuing this
matter; the work to be agreed with the complainant;
• ensure (if not already done) that there is no further
unreasonable delay and that orders are properly made; and
• review its procedures to ensure that the failings identified
here are unlikely to recur.
However, this is not the end of the story. Now that the orders
to have the paths added to the definitive map (the legal record
of public rights of way held by Devon County Council) have been
made and advertised, objections have been received to them. In
respect of the path which runs through Northleigh, Farway,
Colyton and Southleigh those objections will be heard by an
independent Inspector from the Planning Inspectorate at a public
inquiry to be held at Northleigh Village hall on 14 May. Only
when the Inspector has considered the evidence for these paths
and issued his verdict on the matter will we know whether or not
the paths will be legally recognised and recorded as public
rights of way.