Agenda item

Application Ref.

Application address

Agenda ref.

Page no.

 -

Application to divert Footpath 51,

Dorchester and Footpath 6,

Winterborne Monkton

5

5 onwards

Receipt of views from Councillor Roland Tarr - Winterborne and Broadmayne Ward member

“Thank you for your invitation to this meeting, received by us, as Ward Councillors.

The Mayor of Dorchester, Ward Member for Poundbury, and I, are in Bayeux, Dorchester’s Partner Town, at the invitation of the Mayor of Bayeux, from this Friday. On Monday morning we shall be laying wreaths by the graves of those local people who died during the recapture of the town by the Dorset Regiment at the end of the last war.

We both wish to send our apologies but should be grateful if our views could be read to the committee at a suitable time during the meeting.

The future of non-motorised access from the villages around Dorchester for children who come to our schools in the town as well as those who work in the town and commute from those villages is a very topical, and we are currently in discussion with the Duchy about this.

I taught at Hardyes for ten years, and students from the villages were unable to join in with many of the after-school activities which are organised for them - sporting, extra catch-up classes for exams, drama and music for example, because there has never been any safe usable cycling provision for returning after the school buses leave at 3.45pm.

Likewise, by way of example, hospital staff who like to cycle to work from the villages west  of Poundbury either have to cycle through a filthy farmyard and dismount to open multiple gates  or brave a very nasty roundabout across a fast and heavily trafficked trunk road.

As a council we should surely be planning to resolve these problems by discussion, and not closing existing rights of way without looking at the overall situation.

The two Ward Councillors would therefor ask the Strategic Planning Committee to familiarise themselves with the new path and old on Monday, but defer a final decision until further discussions have been held with the Duchy, and the tenants, who have recently indicated a wish to discuss possible mutually beneficial solutions.

I should also mention that local walkers park near the western, Monkeys Jump, end of this path for short early morning and evening walks on their way to and from work and enjoy the superb views of Maiden Castle which it affords.

I realise that the closure of this path may seem irrelevant to the general problem of lack of access for our rural population, as described above, but if it is humanly possible my preference would be for a decision on the footpath closure by our Strategic Planning Committee to be deferred pending further discussions between the Duchy , the tenants and the very new Dorset Council.

If we are as a Council to aim to meet our current Green commitments I believe a strategic approach to those problems and opportunities is vital.

Yours

Roland”

………………………………………………………..

Officer’s response - Carol McKay - to Cllr Tarr’s email of 17 September 2019:-

“The issues raised by Cllr Tarr are applicable to the wider matter of provision for cyclists and walkers in the Poundbury / Dorchester area and these matters cannot be considered under the legal tests for Public Path Diversion Orders. However a decision on the footpath diversion does not prejudice the outcome of any future talks with the Duchy regarding public access.

The proposed diversion concerns public footpaths and provides a new route for walkers only (this includes mobility scooters etc).

Cyclists will not be permitted on the proposed new route. There is no legal obligation for a landowner to upgrade a diverted footpath to bridleway.

Although cycling provision is not relevant to the proposed footpath diversion, Dorset Council officers are happy to enter into discussions with the Duchy to improve public access in the area. “

19/09/2019