The result of the judgment is will be threefold and far reaching.

• The DEFRA system can be circumvented and ridiculed. It will mean that if a landowner is taken to a Magistrates Court by a Council for an alleged obstruction under the Section 130 process the Magistrates Court Order can be disrespectfully ignored.
• It will place all Councils in an untenable position in that they will be subjected to high legal costs defending any application made by any extremist who insists that all footpaths must be cleared in totality to a width determined by that complainant. A 'scorched earth policy'
• Relationships between the Councils and Landowners would deteriorate accordingly when it is known that SCC supported a rambler to prosecute them.

The basic argument that the SCC Rights of Way Dept put forward – and that the judiciary has upheld is to support, bizarrely – that there should be no structure whatsoever on a footpath (that includes gate posts, small side fences etc.), and no gate should be locked (unless for livestock – Barcroft Hall has 75 acres of farmland), even though there is a side gate or as in the pic shown above, a Bristol Gate. This is regarded as a Highway Obstruction, even though it is a footpath (not a road or bridleway). This might make sense if say 10 people were chained together and couldn't walk in single file through a pedestrian gate (Editor: now you're being silly), but when is Common Sense and The Law going to meet?

The picture on right shows the path to a very well known tourist attraction used by thousands of walkers every year. The gate is locked because livestock is kept and some walkers will inevitably leave it open. So what?

What's the point of a Bristol Gate if the farmer can't lock it? Do the gate manufacturers know this? Does Farmers Weekly? Have the SCC not heard of cattle rustling? Why shouldn't the farmer be allowed to lock his own gates, as long as pedestrian access is not inhibited?

The photo on the right is again a very common procedure. Ever open side gate wide enough for people and prams but with a main gate. This is precisely the same situation as at Barcroft. Will someone please explain the obstruction to walkers on the Right of Way – unless we're all getting so fat that side gates will become obsolete. Maybe they do have a point after all?

But what's this below – more locked gates over a footpath?

And here's another one . . .

. . . and yet another.

This one's on the West Mendip Way, no less.

And here's another . . .

And this one's only three miles from County Hall.
They're everywhere.