They shall not pass - landowners fight back against the march of the walkers

Roger Dobson reports on the growing backlash against Labour's 'right to roam' footpaths policy

Aggrieved landowners have set up a pressure group to counter what they see as a huge expansion in public footpaths.

In a move that may spell trouble for the Government's planned right to roam policy, the Countryside Rights Association has been formed in the wake of a number of court cases, planning inquiries and local rows over the routes of paths.

"The millennium has been set as a target for opening up all rights of way, and funding is being made available to get that work done," said Michael Wood, solicitor and founder member of the association. "As a result a lot of the problems are occurring with council officials coming along and saying 'this is a right of way. it has to be opened up'."

More than 50 landowners have joined the group since its formation two months ago. They do not all own large properties.

Mrs Doreen Evason, 70, lives on the border of Hereford and Worcester and Shropshire near Ludlow. She and her neighbours face having a footpath running across their back gardens only five yards from their doors.

"There has never been a path here and I have lived in this house since it was built," she said. "The first we knew about it was when the footpath warden came and said he had come to mark the footpath. He said everything had got to be opened up by the millennium.

"It will run five yards from my back door. The chain link fencing will have to be taken down and stiles put in and people will just be able to walk through my garden. We can be sitting in our garden and a load of strangers come through. I think it is terrible to take away our security and right to privacy like this. People cannot have walked this path for at least 50 years, to my knowledge."

Graham Bromilow, an architect and owner since 1983 of on old Welsh water mill by the Dee at Llangollen, has run into a similar problem that has dragged on for 11 years. It began when people complained to Gordon Emery, a volunteer worker with the Ramblers Association, that a path, established through his property since at least 1811, was blocked.

Mr Bromilow said: "I bought the house with the knowledge that there wasn't a public right of way. I have spent a lot of money on it, but if I had known there was a public footpath coming through I probably would not have bought the house."

The new association offers its members advice about dealing with rights of way problems. "The aim is to represent the interests of property owners, tenants and farmers affected by claims of footpaths and rights of way," Mr Wood said. "It will be a central point for contact for case law. It is now a national problem.

"We are not anti-rights of way but we want the whole issue looked at sensibly."

A Ramblers Association spokesman said: "In recent years, public opinion has swung behind our campaign to open up the paths. The Government's official advisers, the Countryside Commission and the Countryside Council for Wales have adopted targets for getting all public paths properly recorded, signposted and in good order by the end of the century."