Fighting for the right to roam

10:40am Wednesday 31st March 2004

Comments (0)   Have your say »

WALKERS say they will take on a grammar school over its right to block a riverside walk.

Beths Grammar School in Hartford Road, Bexley Village, says it will consider putting a kissing gate in the metal fence it has erected across the pathway at the entrance to its playing field.

But the Ramblers' Association says the offer does not establish people's legal right to use the path.

The battle over the path along the the River Shuttle, began last year when the school put up a 7ft fence on its boundary.

Headteacher James Skinner said the school took the action at the request of people living next to the school who objected to youngsters on motorbikes trespassing on the land and using the school field for racing.

The field is also the school's rugby pitch and Mr Skinner said there were health and safety concerns about walkers allowing their dogs to use the pitch as a toilet.

Bill Ripper, footpath secretary for local ramblers, claims the path is a public right of way and the school has no right to control access to it.

He says although Mr Skinner will recommend a kissing gate at a meeting in May, governors will continue to review the situation.

He said: "This means that while they are willing to accept the public may use the path permissively, they can, at any time of their choosing, lock the gates without consultation, denying the public access.

"The Ramblers' Association view this as the thin end of the wedge."

He says the association, which has been gathering evidence of long-term use of the path, has now asked Bexley Council to make an order under the Wildlife and Countryside Act to put the path on the Definitive Map, which would establish it as a public right of way.

Mr Skinner said: "I will be disappointed if the ramblers take that course of action. We are trying to reach a compromise."

He says the school would fight the move: "If the ramblers win, we will be forced to run a fence along the length of the path to protect our pitch.

That will be expensive and it will spoil the openness of the walk."

Ward councillor Colin Tandy, who has been trying to broker the compromise, said: "I have sympathy with the walkers and their anger that the path was blocked without any consultation, and with the school which is trying to keep the rugby pitch free of dog mess."

He supports the idea of the kissing gate and says the school has undertaken to consult with ward councillors if it ever wants to close the kissing gate.