A small urban Public Footpath across the way from my house has been closed since the floods of last autumn due to a small landslip that seems to have come from the garden of a private dwelling.. The flood damage has not blocked the path, but has caused a large amount of topsoil to come to rest against a (fairly sturdy sleeper built) fence which is now leaning and bulging precariously onto the course of the path..

The path has had barriers erected at both ends with signs advising of the closure..
Now I’m going to guess that the person responsible for the upkeep of the path would be the local council perhaps, due it’s urban nature.. Or would the responsibility in this case lie with the owner of the property that is causing the problem..?
So what are their obligations regarding reinstating it and under what kind of time restrictions..?

Or is it likely to remain closed while a daft legal wrangle over responsibility drags on indefinitely..?

All depends on you local rights of way officer tbh and the landowner can be responsible for sorting it out as they have to keep rights of way clear. Contact your rights of way officer and have a friendly chat to see what the score is!

A bridleway near here got closed by a landslip.
There was some sort of temporary closure order stuck on a nearby pole, a bit like a planning notice.
It was still closed way past the date on the notice.
What does it say on the signs on yours ? Any dates ?

All depends on you local rights of way officer tbh and the landowner can be responsible for sorting it out as they have to keep rights of way clear. Contact your rights of way officer and have a friendly chat to see what the score is

nah.. no details as far as I can see…

just these fellas at both ends

Local councilor owns adjacent land, by any chance ?

18 months

I’m guessing its a temporary traffic restriction order under section 14 RTRA 1984

in which case maximum length permitted is 6 months, although this can be extended as necessary by the traffic authority only on direct application to the Sec of State.

there should be signs publicising it, and a mention in the back of the local paper.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/27/section/14
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/27/section/15

Or is it likely to remain closed while a daft legal wrangle over responsibility drags on indefinitely.

.

This! Plus ‘we can’t afford to as its not in the maintenance budget’

Had one of those signs on an FP near me and some zip tie and wire fence panel to prevent crossing the footbridge, got replaced with steel barrier concreted in place. Got around to calling the RoW he said the bridge was in need of work for euro compliance but the closure and barriers were all unofficial 😯 got shifted soon after.

pretty sure 6months with the possibility to extend is what I was told, as per rattrap, when enquiring about another bit of fp that had been closed for building nearby (which went on for 12months)

Management of public rights of way
The main responsibility for rights of way falls on the highway authority. The highway authority
is the county or unitary authority for the area. It has a wide range of statutory duties – that is
action it must take – to protect and maintain rights of way; and it has discretionary powers – that
is action it may take if it wants to.
Duties of the highway authority
• Maintain the surface of highways, and control vegetation (other than crops) on the surface of
field-edge paths and those enclosed by hedges, fences or walls and on set-aside land.
• Maintain bridges over natural watercourses including farm ditches (if the ditch was there when
the path was first recorded).
• Provide signposts where rights of way leave metalled roads (highway authorities may also
waymark rights of way, after consulting the landowner).
• Assert and protect the public right to use public rights of way.
• Secure the removal of obstructions including those due to damage to the surface.
• Ensure there are no intimidating notices that deter the public from using the paths shown on the
definitive map, and prosecute anyone who displays such notices.
• Take action, in default where necessary, to ensure that the duties of others are carried out.
• Provide a minimum 25% contribution towards any costs incurred by a landowner in
maintaining stiles or gates on public rights of way.
• Prepare rights of way improvement plans.

Land managers’ responsibilities
The land manager must respect the public’s rights of passage and not do anything that would
inconvenience or endanger the public in any way. The land manager has responsibility for the
following:
• Keeping rights of way clear of any obstructions, such as padlocked gates, rubbish, barbed
wire, slurry, manure, electric fences, hedgerows and chained or loose dogs, and warn users of
potential dangers (e.g. slurry lagoons, cliffs) near rights of way.
• Cutting back vegetation encroaching from the sides (but not the surface) and above, so that it
does not inconvenience the public or prevent the right of way being apparent on the ground. On
bridleways, horse riders should be allowed 3 metres (10 feet) or headroom.
• Keeping paths clear of crops (other than hay and silage) to ensure that they do not
inconvenience users.
• Ensuring that stiles and gates on rights of way are maintained in good order.
• Providing adequate bridges where, with the permission of the highway authority, new ditches
are made or existing ones widened.
• Ensuring that cross-field footpaths are ploughed or disturbed only when it it not convenient to
avoid them.
• Ensuring that field-edge footpaths and bridleways and all byways open to all traffic, roads
used as public paths, restricted byways and unsurfaced public roads are never cultivated.
• Where the cultivation of a cross field footpath or bridleway cannot be conveniently avoided,
ensuring its surface is made good to at least the minimum width within 14 days of first being
cultivated for that crop, or within 24 hours of any subsequent cultivation, unless otherwise
agreed with the highway authority.
• Ensuring that paths over cultivated and remain apparent on the ground at all times and are
not obstructed by crops.
• Ensuring that bulls are not kept in a field crossed by a path unless they do not exceed 10
months or are both not of a recognised dairy breed and are accompanied by cows or heifers.
• Ensuring that any warning notices are displayed only when a bull is present in a field.
• Never keeping an animal known to be aggressive (including a bull of whatever breed) in a
field to which the public never has any access.
• Waymarking public rights of way (where the occupier consider it necessary and desirable).
• Ensuring that not misleading signs are placed near rights of way that might discourage
access; highway authorities have powers under section 57 of the National Parks and Access to
the Countryside Act to remove such signs.

? does that help

and if you get really desperate – A highway authority can be taken to court to force it to carry out its maintenance duties, or to
secure the removal of an obstruction.

if you get really desperate – A highway authority can be taken to court to force it to carry out its maintenance duties, or to secure the removal of an obstruction.

Good point – some reading on S56 applications here:

http://www.iprow.co.uk/gpg/index.php/Section_56_Process
http://www.bbtrust.org.uk/pdf/notes-s56.pdf

Is is definitely a Public Footpath? If so, and as its an urban path (between houses / sealed surface / etc) it probably won’t be maintained by the Rights of Way but the Highways department instead. I don’t deal with these sort of paths. If its not a RoW it is probably an adopted path so the Highways responsibility anyway.

Its not unusual for paths to have – as rattrap outlines – 6 month closures (the longest normally allowed) but as stated it needs to have notices at either end. As there are no notices and just road closed signs in place, thats the sort of thing Highways do. I do try and put 6 month closures on if they’re my paths.

As there is topsoil / material from an adjacent property resting against the fence (presumably rendering it unsafe) it will be whoever owns that land to clear it. It could be private property, it could be council-owned, dunno. As its taken so long they could be in negotations with the landowner with a view to open it up when safe to do so. It could be that the landowner is elderly, in hospital, dead, whatever, so they may have agreed (if the costs aren’t too high) to do it themselves or split the costs if its going to be expensive.

It could be that there is already another reasonably convenient path nearby so noone has really complained about it, so I really wouldn’t advise serving a section 56 notice until you have already complained and then given them a reasonable amount of time to resolve it.

Also bear in mind as it appears to be a private landowner responsible, when you serve notice on the authority (in a situation like this as it’s probably a S130a notice not a S56, and even so you can’t serve notice if its closed due to safety reasons only if someone is deliberately blocking it / not fixing it quickly enough) they will just the automatically transfer the notice onto the landowner – a lot of the time in my experience, on ill / elderly people. Yes there are situations where S56’s are useful, but really they should be used on major long-standing problems.

Check if your council has an online definitive map (just to note the path number – if its not on the DM get the grid reference), ring them up, and take it from there.

Shout if you need more info