Agenda item

There were two statements that had been submitted to the Committee

relating to items on the agenda, these would be read out when the agenda items

were considered.

The following question concerned an item not on the agenda and was read out by

Christopher Dunn:

A photograph was shown to the Committee titled “from Crag Hill Lane Killinghall, across the front of Crag Hill Cottage looking South East along the Definitive legal line of PROW 1565/3, its start point is the tree stumped blocked stone stile in foreground”.

“ The recent civil works at Crag Hill Cottage shows the new (double original height) front wall bending out across the NYC 1200mm verge right to the tarmac edge. NYC Highway searches have confirmed the extent of the highway includes the 1200mm verge. Safe haven Verges are critical now on single track Crag Hill Lane as Yorkshire Water are without any deference to ‘planning’ are completing a £19m refit, (with much HGV traffic!), of the Sewage works at the end of this lane.

This ‘alleged’ Verge ‘jacking’ was pointed out to your highway PROW Officers some 3 months ago, but they were not interested. To compound the ‘aggravation’ to the pedestrian public PROW 1565/3 has been totally obstructed at this point for the whole of definitive legal life for 71 years.

Why has my highway authority allowed this dreadful situation to arise and continue unabated ?”

Mark Codman (Democratic Services) read out the following statement on behalf of Council officers:

“There is a public footpath crossing the garden of Crag Lane Cottage that has in effect been obstructed by the domestic garden. An unofficial alternative path was provided along the field edge to the east of the property exit exiting onto Crag Hill Lane. It is understood that the cottage was built after information was collected from Parish Councils, a nationwide process in approximately 1951, and at the time the eventual definitive map of public rights of way was issued. As an alternative path was provided, albeit unofficially, there has been little issue with the situation.

In 2022 the legal alignment across the garden became a matter of concern for the owner of the cottage as they were minded to sell the property. A formal application was therefore made to the countryside access service for a public path diversion order for this section of footpath to be formally diverted out of the garden onto the walked route outside of the eastern boundary of the cottage garden. The countryside access team do not consider that the current new owners have moved the former boundary wall at all however as the wall is part of the highways road boundary rather than bounding the public foot path then the local highways team are able to commit to a site visit to review the verge and take appropriate action.

A public path diversion order was made in 2023 which further addressed some of the problems across the field to the east and to legally formalize the currently walked alignment. The public path diversion order process includes public consultation and there is one objection to the audit received from Mr Dunn. The council is now considering sending the opposed order and objection to the Secretary of State for resolution.

The decision whether or not the order will be referred is to be made by the Director of Environment at the executive member meeting on Friday 15 March and as an addition to this the Parish Council have been made aware of all the developments at Crag Lane as has the local Councillor for the constituency.

Thank you Mr Dunn for your question.