The Law with all its defects relies heavily on precedent. It should be instructive therefore to look at how the Highways Authority has handled similar alleged "blocked footpaths" in the parish. The question of parity or fair treatment may also be instructive.

Let's look first at the subject of gates. As recently as February 2008, Mr Hague who lives in North Street, applied to erect some ornamental gates across a Right of Way. The helpful RoW officer Tim Newman said that "so long as the minimum width of 1.2metres is available to footpath users I do not believe that it will materially affect the rights of users." And ". . . subject to the pedestrian gates being fixed to the wall so as to render it inoperable and thus a decorative feature of your wall. There will be no need to continue with your application to authorise your gates, as they do not obstruct the Right of Way. (For correspondence see here.)

Now to alleged "blocked paths" and first to North Street, the road that runs from the centre of South Petherton up to Barcroft Lane. There is a path shown on the map that parallels the road behind the houses. North Street narrows as it reaches the Barcroft junction and carries heavy agricultural vehicles – there is no pavement.

Mothers with prams, amongst others, would prefer to use a safe path but since 2005 this path has been illegally diverted, built on and narrowed. Since then there have been many formal applications to remove these obstructions using the DEFRA s130a system. The district council has made no attempt to alleviate this problem, instead they have promoted the obstruction. Indeed surprisingly the parish council voted for the extinguishment and diversion of these paths.

That action has forced parishioners onto the road and the diversion forced them to avoid land that was and continues to be the subject of planning enforcement. A diversion order has been posted.

The same situation applies to Compton Road, a quarter mile south of North Street. See photo right.

The Parish Council in 2005 were presented with a survey under the village plan chairmanship of Brian Herrick and found some 120 matters requiring attention. It took two years for SCC to come back and little was achieved.

Click images to enlarge