For centuries our Rights of Way have provided safe pedestrian access to local amenities, other communities, churches, and the countryside that surrounds us. Many of the local Rights of Way have been formalised by Statute and appear on O/S Plans. Others, not formalised by Statute, but none the less Rights of Way under the Highways Acts of England and Wales, have been used for great lengths of time, on a regular basis, and without challenge. It is these latter footpaths which are under threat. We need to record and establish their usage

Over the last few years, new landowners, recognising the obvious well-trodden routes of our Rights of Way, have chosen to erect quantities of barbed wire to obstruct some of them. This is most evident on the land at the rear of the Recreation Ground. Efforts to persuade the Land Owner to reopen these paths have failed. This is despite the fact that many Villagers have informed the Residents Association that they have had decades of use over the paths without encumbrance or challenge.

The Warwickshire County Council will shortly be providing the Residents Association with forms and plans which will allow formal Witness Statements to be gathered from regular users of the paths at the rear of the park. These Statements will then be submitted as a formal claim for these obstructed paths to be included on the Definitive Footpath Plan.

It will be helpful if those villagers who wish to support this claim register their interest with the Chairman, Stu Barbour, so that the Witness forms, when to hand, may be distributed to them. Contact Stu via email by filling in the HHRA Contact Form or by conventional mail to 9 Rashwood Close.