Issue - meetings

A report was presented on an application for an Order to be made under Section 119 of the Highways Act 1980, to divert part of Footpath Wheelton 19, Chorley Borough from the route shown by a bold continuous line and marked A-B, to the route shown by a bold broken line and marked A-C-D-E-F on the Committee plan attached to the agenda papers.

The Committee noted that Clovian House and Miry Fold Farm were residential dwellings that were part of a small development on the site that was granted planning permission in 2015. Whilst the development was ongoing, for safety reasons, the footpath was temporarily diverted to the edge of the site, onto the alignment of the proposed new route A-C-D-E-F.

The current owners had not been involved in the original planning application and had only recently become aware that the necessary order had not been made to permanently divert the footpath onto the alternative route that was available to be walked on the ground. Now that the current owners were aware of this, they wished to regularise the situation. If the diversion was successful, it would remove the footpath that ran through the building, boundary fence, hedge and boundary wall of one of the houses and also across the gardens.

It was reported that consultation with the statutory undertakers had been carried out and that no objections or adverse comments on the proposal had been received.

Committee were informed that since the report had been drafted, it was no longer proposed that a gate be erected at point D, where the footpath crossed the field boundaries of two separate paddocks. The reason for this was that the footpath would now be fenced off from the paddocks, ensuring the footpath would not be trampled by livestock. It was therefore no longer necessary to install a gate at point D, as the livestock would be separated from the footpath. The gate at point E would still be erected.

The following amendments were therefore reported to Committee:

Page 278: Points annotating the routes on the attached map

Page 279: The public footpath to be created by the proposed Order will be subject to the following limitations and conditions:

Page 280: The 'Other Particulars' column be amended to read:

"The only limitations on the section between SD 6083 2097 and SD 6091 2091 is the right of the owner of the soil to erect and maintain a gates that conforms to BS 5709:2018 at SD 6085  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9