Council keeps up pressure in Teneriffe footpath fight

The pathway, which connects Broad Street and the Marine Parade, has been closed off by the residents in the Teneriffe housing complex leading to a drawn-out dispute between the town council and residents, stemming back to the 1980s.

After many debates between the town council and the residents of Teneriffe, the matter was thought to have been brought to a close in 2012 when the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ordered the inclusion of the path on definitive maps.

However, the order was incorrectly drafted, meaning the issue has gone before the county council again for further consideration. The matter was being presented to Dorset County Council’s Rights of Way committee today Thursday, January 16, and members of the town council’s planning and highways committee were represented by Coun Lorna Jenkin at the meeting.

She was asking the county council to support the town council’s application.

She was due to report further evidence of use of the pathway, after being contacted by a Mr Walters, who lives three miles outside Lyme Regis.

His father was the head of the county council’s rights of way committee just after the First World War, and had intended to put Teneriffe Path on the maps, but had died before it was finalised, with a delay in replacing him at the county council resulting in the pathway not being inserted.

Councillors also agreed they would follow up the county meeting straight away to find out what is the next step, and they agreed the town council should collect more evidence on the usage of the path as a public right of way. Coun Anita Williams said: “We may still need to resubmit evidence and go back to a much earlier period of time to prove that it has always been a public pathway.

“This footpath is important because before the sea defences it provided a vital route to the Cobb when there is bad weather and high winds on the seafront.”