An application for a short passageway to be declared a public right of way has been described as arising from a dispute between neighbours.
However, Staindrop Parish Council is supporting the application for it to be included on the Definitive Map because of the historic use of the path by villagers.
Several people who own homes between 14 and 18 South Green are opposing the move saying it is limited to private access rights.
About 10 people attended the parish council’s latest meeting when the issue was discussed.
One of the homeowners said when the problem was initially raised the parish council took the stance that he should discuss it directly with the person who had petitioned to make it a public footpath.
He said: “I did attempt to engage with the petitioner but they declined.
“The reason the private land signage was erected was on police advice following anti-social behaviour issues. The current private status of the land enables us and the police to challenge unlawful access when necessary.
“Our title deeds show private access rights across neighbouring land from the public highway on South Green to our property. The existence of private access rights strongly indicates the route was not historically considered a public right of way.”
The homeowner offered to pay for legal advice to amend the private access rights with the people living at numbers 13, 14, 18, 19 and 20 South Green.
He said: “This costly and extremely stressful matter, in my opinion, could have been sorted out around a table in a reasonable manner, rather than undertaking this potentially fractious process. Agreeing to support this Definitive Map alteration could well set an unhealthy precedent at what is essentially a neighbour dispute.”
A number of residents, many of whom are elderly and have lived in the village all their lives, spoke about using the route often and recall a sign which described it as a public path.
A resident said: “I am 81 years old. I’ve lived in the village all my life. I have used the footpath through there to go to school, to come back from school, to go backwards and forwards, and I have always understood there is a public footpath through there. As far as I am concerned it belongs to the village, it doesn’t belong to this lot [the homeowners].”
A homeowner who lives at the entrance of the passageway said their home is the most affected by the passageway and said in the past people had smoked and taken drugs in the passage, just below his child’s bedroom window.
He added: “It is not a public right of way, we have got the deeds to prove it.
“We have to give restricted access for bins and people [living there].
“I could put a door on the passageway, under the cut, but I haven’t. I have never stopped any of these people in this room from using the cut, and I could have done under the restricted access.
“It is pathetic it has come to this situation. It is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”
Cllr Roger Humphries said in the about 53 years he had been in the village it had always been a public footpath until “what I describe as a hostile environment”.
He added that his children had used the passage to access the fields and market gardens on the other side.
Cllr Humphries said: “If anything surprises me, it is how it didn’t get onto the Definitive Map in the first place.”
The parish council voted four in favour of supporting the path to be included on the Definitive Map, while one member abstained.
