Revert to old policy (From The Oxford Times)

Revert to old policy

8:20am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Letters

Sir – Leaving aside the question of where democracy in the county resides (Letters, January 5), it would seem that Keith Mitchell in his reply to Chris Hall (Letters, December 22), who accused the county council of wasting public money by holding a public inquiry into a diversion of a right of way at Bodicote, overlooked Chris Hall’s point (December 15) that the county council was not under a statutory duty to change a right of way at the request of a landowner.

During the 1990s the county council imposed a moratorium on the processing of applications for a right of way to be changed.

Given the county council’s need to cut its budget in these times of austerity and the costly business of making changes to rights of way, is there not a case for the county council to revert to its former policy for the time being and only process a request from a landowner to divert a right of way which crosses his or her land where there is a clear public benefit from such a diversion.

Gordon Garraway, CPRE Oxfordshire Branch, Holton