Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 December 2021.

Resolved

That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 2 December 2021 be approved as a correct record.

Please see note (b) at the end of the agenda.

No declarations of interest were made.

At this juncture, Cllr Dr David Willingham informed the Committee that he had undertaken an informal site visit on Sunday 27 March 2022.

To answer any written or public questions about the application(s) before the Committee at this meeting.  The closing date/time for the receipt of questions

is 10:00 am on 22 March 2022.  Please send questions marked for the attention of Joanne Bolton (email: joanne.bolton@gloucestershire.gov.uk).

No public questions had been received on the applications before the Committee.

To answer any written members’ questions on the application(s) before Committee at the meeting. The closing date/time for the receipt of questions is 10:00 am on 22 March 2022.  Please send questions marked for the attention of Joanne Bolton (email: joanne.bolton@gloucestershire.gov.uk).

One question had been received.  A copy of the question and answer had been circulated and uploaded to the Council’s website.  

The Committee noted the question and answer.

To consider the following application:

Nature of Application: Additional length of footpath

Parish: Winchcombe

Name of Applicant: Cleeve Group of Ramblers’ Association

Date of Application: 4 November 2008

5.1      Andrew Houldey, Asset Data Officer (PROW Definitive Map), gave a detailed presentation to the Committee aided by a PowerPoint presentation, which included photographs of the claimed route under consideration.  (For information: A copy of the presentation slides has been uploaded to the Council’s website.)

5.2      The Committee considered the application for a Definitive Map Modification Order (DMMO) for an addition length of public footpath between road 50522 and public footpath AWB 52 Mill Farm, Greet, Parish of Winchcombe.  The claimed route was shown running between points A and B, on the Plan attached at Appendix 1B to the report.

5.3      The Asset Data Officer explained that Section 53(3)(c)(i) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 related to the discovery of evidence by the Surveying Authority which (when considered with all other relevant evidence available to them) showed that a right of way which was not shown in the map and statement subsisted or was reasonably alleged to subsist over land in the area to which the map related, being a right of way such that land over which the right subsists was a public path, a restricted byway, or… a byway open to all traffic.  He drew members’ attention to paragraphs 14.1-14.4 of the report which detailed the case law that clarified the nature of the two tests (i.e. (a) Test A: Does a right of way subsist? (b) Test B: Is it reasonable to allege that a right of way subsists?).

5.4      The Committee was informed that on 19 February 2003 an application was made by the then-landowner Mr Pearce of Mill Farm, Greet, to delete the entire length of public footpath AWB 52.  Path AWB 52 which ran east from Mill Farm (point B) to the main Cheltenham to Stratford road (B4632). The application to delete public footpath AWB 52 was refused by the County Council’s Commons and Rights of Way Panel on 30 March 2004.  The applicant appealed to the Secretary of State against the decision to refuse the application to delete the footpath.  The Secretary of State upheld the County Council’s decision by letter dated 22 November 2005.  The Asset Data Officer informed members that the report made reference to, and included the evidence from, both the Commons and Rights of Way Panel report of 30 March 2004 and the Secretary of State’s decision letter of 22 November 2005.

5.5      The Asset Data Officer explained that Mill Farm, located between points A and B, was a working corn mill known as Greet Mill until 1904 when it was sold as part of the Manor Farm Estate.  It then operated as a creamery until it closed in 1926.  Following the closure of the creamery in 1926 the farm operated as a pig farm between 1926 and 1928 when it was purchased by Mr Pearce’s father.  The farm had since remained in the ownership of the Pearce family.

5.6      The Committee noted that there was a stone slab over the ditch immediately to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To answer any written or public questions about the matters, which are within the powers and duties of the Committee.  The closing date/time for the receipt of questions is 10:00am on 22 March 2022.  Please send questions marked for the attention of Joanne Bolton (email: joanne.bolton@gloucestershire.gov.uk).

No public questions had been received on the powers and duties of the Committee.

To answer any written members’ questions about the matters which are within the powers and duties of the Committee. The closing date/time for the receipt of questions is 10:00am on 22 March 2022.  Please send marked for the attention of Joanne Bolton (email: joanne.bolton@gloucestershire.gov.uk).

Two questions had been received.  A copy of the questions and answers had been circulated and uploaded to the Council’s website. 

The Committee noted the questions and answers.