Says Bob Milton

A Public Inquiry was held on Thursday 28th and Friday 29th June into an application for fencing and self closing gates as a precursor to applying for Higher Level Stewardship. The application sought to exclude two parts of the common into private use, enclose part of the Church Path bridleway as well as erecting some 2,700 metres of fencing on the common.

The gates proposed required the adjacent landowner – the National Trust to grant permissive access over its land for de facto lawful public access for pedestrians and equestrians. There was no formal agreement for HLS subject to the fencing and no internal agreement with the commoners.

The gating of Church Path bridleway and the access to the common with dangerous self closing gates was strongly questioned

The variations proposed by Telscombe Town Council during the two days called into question the powers of the Inspector to make such major changes which had not been consulted on.

The consultation process was likewise questioned in respect users who have protected characteristics as required by the Equality Act 2010 as no Equality or Access impact assessment was given in evidence.

On the second day the 2009 report on the management of the Tye which had been referred to a number of times was supplied to the Inspector. The lateness of the document was commented on.

The whole process was queried as putting the cart before the horse given the number of legal issues brought up by the British Horse Society and Abbeylands and the lack of legal agreements with the adjacent landowners.

To read the Telscombe Tye story in full click HERE ................