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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 109397 in the
City of Carlisle as shown A-C-F-B on the attached order plan
and
 
to divert public footpath no 109401 in the
City of Carlisle as shown C-D-E to a new route A-C-I-J-K-L-M-N-E
and public footpath no 109402 in the City of Carlisle as shown
F-G-H-D to a new route K-O-P-Q-R 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 109397, 109401 and 109402
follow alignments through the development area and would be
impacted by the proposed housing 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.
 
Discussions between the countryside access
officers and the applicant developer has concluded that formal
stopping up of public footpath no 109397 and diversion of public
footpath nos 109401 and 109402 to the
routes shown on the order map would utilise the green/open spaces
within the proposed development to create pleasant, accessible, and
largely traffic free routes.  These new
routes would link to the proposed counterpart footpath dedications
by Cumberland Council to the north and west, thereby largely
preserving and enhancing the historic links between Etterby Road and the popular Kingmoor Sidings Local
Nature Reserve and benefit the wider public rights of way
network.
 
The proposed stopping up and diversion is
necessary to enable development to be carried out.
 
The making of the proposed Order is dependent
on the dedication by the Council of the permissive paths shown on
the plan at Appendix 3 and on the master plan of the combined
proposals as shown on the plan at Appendix 4.
 
As the development is to obstruct the legal
alignment of the footpaths then the formal stopping up and
diversion must be completed before the development work is
initiated.
 

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 new routes that utilise the traffic
free green/open spaces withing the development, preserve historic
links and add to the wider public rights of way network in the
area.
 
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.