National Walking Charity Wins Victory For Walkers Everywhere
21/06/2007
The Ramblers' Association (RA) won a major victory for walkers everywhere in a landmark House of Lords ruling. The national walking charity went to the highest court in the land and challenged the iniquitous judgment which made it unjustly easy for landowners to deny the existence of rights of way by using hidden evidence to make them private.
The House of Lords agreed to overturn a ruling, which allowed landowners to use evidence, which had not been made public, for example letters to solicitors or even private conversations, to imply they intended the footpaths to be private. This meant that members of the public could waste months proving the existence of a public right of way, only to be defeated by evidence about which they knew nothing.
So even after 20 years of public use, hidden or private information often defeated important footpath claims.
Janet Davis, Rights of Way Policy Co-ordinator, at the RA, said: "This is a landmark ruling which will mean that actions to stop paths being recognised as public rights of way must be transparent. Their Lordships have thoroughly re-examined the law on how rights of way are established, reverting to Lord Denning's statement of the law which had stood for more than forty years unchallenged. Recent interpretations had meant that members of the public were wasting months making claims for paths which were defeated by evidence which was not in the public domain."
She added: "Many footpaths are heavily used but we only appreciate them when they are under threat. Some are key links in the transport network, many are our escape routes when we want to get out into the countryside for some peace and quiet and are the cheapest gym in the country. It is very important that they are protected for everyone to use."