TEESDALE’S MP is to highlight in Parliament a growing row between residents and Hamsterley Forest officials over access rights.
Dehenna Davison will also call a meeting between the two groups, as well as write to the Secretary of State for Rural Affairs George Eustace about the issue.
The row centres around Forestry England wanting residents to change their property deeds so that their right of access is moved from the road in front of the visitor centre to a new route that has been created. Bollards have been put up to close the old access route.
Ms Davison met residents last week when they complained that Forestry England, which has since offered them a £5,000 “gesture of goodwill” , had not consulted them ahead of the changes.
One resident said: “The road that goes past the visitor centre was our main access route in and out of the forest – it has been for years. The forestry then decided to site two ice-cream vans, a hotdog stand, a cafe, a works depot, dustbins and staff parking all on that corner.
“Then they decided that was a danger and we were causing a danger by driving past it. If the new road had gone through with a proper [planning] application informing residents that they were going to close the old road and our right of access would change, that would have given us an opportunity to raise objections.”
Residents said that as part of a deal for them to change their access to the new road was that Holdings Road, where there are ten homes, would be upgraded.
But only part of the road was upgraded last year, sparking anger that residents had not been informed when the work would take place and the extent of the work. They said they would have paid the contractor themselves to finish the entire length of the road.
County councillors James Cosslett and Robert Potts attended two meetings between residents and forestry officers both of which failed to resolve the issue. Cllr Cosslett said: “What they [Forestry England] basically said was you either agree with us or we take you to court.”
Residents claim Forestry England wants them to change their deeds because of plans to rebuild the visitor centre across the old road as part of a masterplan that includes an eco-lodge holiday development.
Ms Davison said: “So they are coming to you and saying they want to alter your deeds and if you don’t agree to it, and by the way here is £5,000, then we will take you to court?” Residents agreed that was the case.
The MP said she would invite senior officers from Forestry England to meet residents at a neutral venue to thrash out the problems.
She added that she would raise the issue in the House of Commons after the parliamentary recess.
Previously, Forestry England’s land agent Victoria Lancaster said the closure of the visitor centre access road was made after an assessment several years ago.
She said last month: “It is quite dangerous to have cars driving around it when there are lots of pedestrians, children, people in wheelchairs, bikes.”
