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The application – which also asked permission to add new lengths of bridle-way in Yapton, Climping and Middleton-on-Sea – was turned down during a meeting of the planning and rights of way committee on Tuesday (October 11).

Applicant Julie Robinson accused officers of doing ‘a hatchet job’ on the application, arguing that there was much evidence to show that the ‘new’ routes had been used as bridle-ways in the past.

Those ‘new’ routes were in three sections – the first running from Cinders Lane, Yapton, across the Charles Square development to an existing right of way; the second running from Grevatts Lane, Ford, to Grevatts Bridge; and the third from Kingsmead Road, Bognor, up to the existing right of way.

The section of foot-way in Middleton-on-Sea

Ms Robinson and others cited evidence from as far back as 1564 in support of their argument that the routes had previously been used as bridle-ways.

They said that one such record held in the Arundel Castle Archives referred to a road running through Ford Park which was described as ‘the Queen’s Highway’ and was used by riders and pedestrians.

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Officers and members of the committee, though, were not convinced.

Simon Oakley (Con, Chichester East) said: “A lot of this historic evidence is not up to what we would consider substantive in modern times.”

Solicitor Laura Floodgate told the meeting: “The officer conclusion in relation to the 1564 evidence is that it’s just not definitive enough. It doesn’t show a route on a plan and it is speculative as to what the route might have been in terms of the Queen’s Highway.”

Upgrade to public foot-ways in Yapton, Climping and Middleton rejected by county council

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