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Sherburn residents protest over the closed path. Picture: Eric Foster

NEXT Wednesday is D-Day in Sherburn-in- Elmet for residents anxiously waiting for a public footpath to be reopened.

Last summer, developers GMS Rawfield built apartments in the village on the site of the former Milk Bar in the town.

In the process, they put up gates at either end of a footpath running through the site, bolting them shut. This caused an outcry among residents, who said the path was bequeathed to the public by a local landowner decades ago.

Despite the revelation last September that the thoroughfare between Kirkgate and Beech Grove was owned by Selby District Council, the right of way is still blocked.

Now the district council has started formal proceedings against the landowner. The local authority's legal department sent a formal letter to the developer on Tuesday and demanded action is taken within seven days of its receipt.

If no action is taken, the council has vowed to take the matter to the county court for resolution.

A spokesman for the district council said: "We are putting forward two proposals - either the original footpath is returned to public use or an alternative route around the development is opened up.

"We are pushing for either of these actions to happen within a short timescale. If no action is taken within the next week, we will take this matter to the county court where we hope a swift resolution can be reached.

"We appreciate that this situation has been ongoing for some months, and we are working hard to ensure this can be resolved as soon as possible to stop any further delay."

Malcolm Dowson, chairman of Sherburn Parish Council, welcomed the progress, saying he wanted to see the gates removed from the path by Wednesday.

"We had a site meeting with Coun Mike Jordan and the new head of the council's legal department last week," he said.

"I made more progress on behalf of Sherburn residents with him than I have in a year with the rest of the legal department.

"He said he couldn't see why this footpath was still closed. They'll be taking the developers to court if they don't open it - it's as simple as that.

"It's got beyond a joke and people in Sherburn are getting so frustrated. I've spent more than 100 hours trying to resolve this over the last year."

He said he favoured opening the existing closed footpath rather than looking at a replacement route.

The Press was unable to contact the developers for comment at the time of going to press. In the past, Marcus Sierant, of the GMS Rawfield, has declined to comment, saying the matter was being dealt with by their solicitors.

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8:40pm Thursday 27th March 2008

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