Agenda item

Report of the Director for Corporate Services.

The Panel considered a report of the Director for Corporate Services for the addition of an alleged Public Footpath from Tenement Farm to Edgewells Farm, Ramshorn and Farley.

The report was presented verbally to take Members through the various legal documentary and historical evidence relevant to the application. The Director also made reference to case law which dealt with the weight to be given to the evidence and gave guidance on the legal tests which they should apply. In applying these tests, Members were made aware that they should examine the evidence in its totality. During their consideration of the application, Members had regard to the Appendices attached to the report including; (i) Map of the claimed route; (ii) 1910 Finance Act plans and field books; (iii) 3^rd edition Ordnance Survey Sheet; (iv) Farley and Ramshorn Parish Survey Cards; (v) Documentation relating to the objection of the routes onto the Definitive map, including map of objection and Schedule of Objections; (vi) Landowner questionnaire; (vii) Copy of owner and occupied evidence form and (vii) copy of letters from East Staffordshire Borough Council and Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.

The Panel decided that the available evidence was sufficient to conclude that the Public Footpath from Tenement Farm to Edgewells Farm, Ramshorn and Farley subsisted and therefore should be added to the Definitive Map and Statement of Public Rights of Way as such.

Decided – That (a) the evidence submitted by the applicant and that discovered by the County Council is sufficient to show that the alleged public footpath from Tenement Farm to Edgewells Farm, Ramshorn and Farley is reasonably alleged to subsist.

(b) an order be made to add the alleged right of way shown on the plan attached at Appendix B and marked A to B to the Definitive Map and Statement of Public Rights of Way for the Districts of East Staffordshire and Staffordshire Moorlands as a Public Footpath.