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That the Assistant Director authorises the
Chief Legal Officer to make an order under Section 257 of the Town
and Country Planning Act 1990
 
to stop up public footpath no 120007 in the
parish of Kingmoor as shown A-B on the attached order plan and
 
to divert public footpath no 120008 in the
parish of Kingmoor as shown B-C to a new route D-E-F-G-H-I-J-C as
shown on the attached order plan
 
and in the event no objections are made to the
order, that the Chief Legal Officer be authorised to confirm the
order

Reasons for the decision

Public Footpath Nos 120007 and 120008 follow
alignments through the development area and would be impacted by
the proposed development. 
 
Local Plan Policy G15 states that new
development will be expected to ensure that all public rights of
way are retained and proposals that would affect existing rights of
way will not be permitted unless an alternative route is available,
or can be made available, which is safe, attractive, is well
integrated with the existing network and is not significantly
longer than the original routes.
 
The proposed new route starts on the Carlisle
Northern Development Route (CNDR) at the business park’s
southern entrance and follows the existing footway before crossing
Dukes Drive via a provided crossing point with associated dropped
kerbs and tactile surfacing.  It then
continues along the wide footway of the spine road a short distance
before crossing over, again via another crossing point with dropped
kerbs and tactile surfacing. 
 
From there, the proposed path parallels the
course of Cargo Beck along a 2-metre wide, newly constructed,
asphalt surfaced path through a newly landscaped, traffic-free,
green space to meet the unaffected section of footpath at point
C.
 
The proposed stopping up and diversion is
necessary to enable development to be carried out.
 
As the development is to obstruct the legal
alignment of the footpaths then the formal stopping up and
diversion must be brought into effect before the development work
is commenced.
 

Alternative options considered

The options considered are:-
 
a.        Not to make
the Order, or
b.        To make the
Order as requested.
 
If the Order is not made then the existing
public footpaths will be obstructed for the most part by the
development.  In doing so the council
will fall foul of its legal duty under section 130 of the Highways
Act 1980 to “assert and protect the rights of the public to
the use and enjoyment of any highway for which they are the highway
authority”.
 
If the Order is made as requested, the
footpaths will be diverted to a new route within the development to
preserve historic highway links.
 
The Council has discretion as to whether or
not to make an order, but such discretion must be exercised
reasonably. Taking into account the
options available to the Council, the option to not make the Order
has been rejected and the recommendation to make the Order is
proposed.