Locals urged to join community walk amid final bid to save ‘ancient’ footpath

Dale Spridgeon, Local Democracy Reporter

Village campaigners are keeping up a fight to save a footpath “for future generations” by appealing for locals to join a community walk.

The walk is being organised to illustrate a disputed route through the Lleiniog woodlands in Llangoed, Anglesey, which has been at the centre of a long running access battle.

For more than five years, locals have been trying to save the pathway for public use and it is now subject to a public inquiry.

Campaigners led by Dr Nick Stuart and Gareth Phillips have long argued that the route, which runs from the Aberlleiniog Castle area towards Lleiniog beach, between Llangoed and Penmon, should be protected.

They had said it was an ancient route, close to the 11th century Aberlleiniog Castle used for centuries – although in a recent legal joust for public access they only had to prove it was used for 20 years.

The campaigners had gathered statements from the community, many older residents, who said it was accessed by generations of local families and visitors.

They had also called in their MS Rhun ap Iorwerth for support and who had written to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) to encourage it to conduct an urgent site visit to better understand the route.

But objections to public use of the route had also come locally from parties with interest in the land.

PEDW had allowed an appeal raised by the campaigners against an initial Anglesey County Council decision not to register the route as public.

The council was later directed to make an order to add the path to the Definitive Map, the legal record of public rights of way, following a determination by a PEDW Inspector on December 6, 2024. Now that order is being challenged.

An Anglesey council document within a PEDW report had noted comments on the order objections.

In one from Davis Meade Property Consultants Ltd, on behalf of Gerwyn Parry and Delwyn Parry, farmers of Llanddona, it stated they had farmed the land crossed by the order route during the relevant 20-year public usage (2000-2020).

“Messrs Parry began witnessing members of the public attempting to access the order route during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020,” it said.

It also noted that they “would challenge any member of the public seen on the order route, and would inform them that it was private”.

They also said they had rebuilt a stone wall around a gatepost “numerous times” claiming members of the public were damaging it by climbing over it to bypass the locked gate.

‘Last chance’

Dr Stuart told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “There is going to be an inquiry, it is the order that is being challenged. We don’t know when yet, but this will be the very final assessment into the matter, it has already been considered by Anglesey County Council twice and by PEDW.

“If people want to say something and feel strongly, they must say it now. It is their last chance. Whatever is decided, that is it.”

Fellow campaigner Gareth Phillips added: “We are organising a community walk to show the history through Lleiniog Woodlands runs, up to the point where it has been blocked and public access denied.

“People’s memories and experiences of walking this route are vital evidence for the forthcoming public inquiry.

“We are gathering information from local people who have used this path over the years. By joining the walk, you can see the route on the ground and share your stories, photographs and knowledge of how the path has been used.

“We feel the footpath has been used for generations – by children walking to explore the woods and castle, families heading to the beach, and neighbours visiting each other.

“If it is lost now, it may be lost forever. Please help keep this route open so that our children and grandchildren can continue to enjoy it, rather than finding it closed off to them.”

Community walk

The walk is on Sunday, December 7, starting at 10am. Meet from 9.30am at Llangoed Village Hall. For more details and to offer information about the route email: [email protected].

PEDW stated that a timetable for a Notice of Order to add Footpath 39 Llangoed to the Definitive Map, started on November 11, 2025, and that all interested parties were told that an inquiry will be held on a date to be agreed.

For queries relating to the Order should be referred to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales email: [email protected]. Quote reference number CAS-04263-C5W0S0.