Plans to temporarily reroute public footpaths in Welsh county
Alec Doyle – Local democracy reporter
A major infrastructure project has applied to temporarily stop or reroute over 20 public rights of way (PRoWs) across a Welsh county.
The Hynet pipeline project will see a pipeline run from Cheshire’s industrial heartland up through Flintshire and Point of Ayr gas terminal before heading out into the Irish Sea.
It will collect, carbon captured from industrial sites in Runcorn, Ellesmere Port and Flintshire and deposit it in spent gas wells beneath the Irish Sea where it will remain locked away rather than being released into the atmosphere.
Hynet has applied to temporarily stop or reroute 31 PRoWs across Flintshire and Cheshire.
One of those – footpath 414/39A that runs along the old mine track at Alltami Brook past Northop Hall Country House Hotel – may be stopped permanently.
Diverted
In total Liverpool Bay CCS – the company behind Hynet – and United Living Infrastructure Services have proposed 24 footpaths across Flintshire be temporarily closed or diverted.
They include the entire chain of footpaths 404/39 along Afon Nant-y-Fflint, the footpath connecting Allt Goch Lane to Leadbrook Drive in Flint running past both Little Leadbrook Farm and Leadbrook Hall Farm and another further up towards Flint Mountain running past Bryn Mawr.
Other closures or redirects include footpath 414/1 which crosses Northop Brook and also connects with Allt Goch Lane, the chain of footpaths identified as 303 – which run from Green Lane in Ewloe through Aston Hill to Hawarden, and path 302/26 that runs along the disused railway line in Hawarden off Wood Lane.
Closures
In Cheshire there are plans to temporarily close and divert public rights of way including footpath four, which connects the Gypsy Way in Mollington with Townfield Lane, footpaths one and six around Wervin and footpaths three and five at Elton, that connect Chester Services with Thornton-le-Moors.
According to the documents submitted to Flintshire County Council’s planning department: “It is understood that FCC (Flintshire County Council and CWCC (Cheshire West and Chester Council) were consulted on the approach to diversions and closures of PRoWs and have confirmed their agreement in principle for diversions.”
None of the pathway diversions or closures – apart from the one in Northop – would be in place longer than six months. Where diversions are carried out, footpaths will retain the same level of access as the current pathways – so if a path is fully accessible for wheelchair users for example, the diversion will be too.
The application documents go on to state: “The width of the proposed diversions will be of a suitable width to enable the same classes of use.
“The diversion route would remain in place until such time as the original route is reinstated to the reasonable satisfaction of the relevant local authority. Reinstatement of the PRoW will occur as soon as practicable once the construction works on each section have been concluded.”
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WHY?
If you read the OCEMP, the Alltami Brook crossing will be constructed using an embedded pipe bridge and the location of the bridge abutments (i.e., the supporting structures at each end) will intersect with the current route of Footpath 414/39A. As a rasult, part of that footpath will have need to be permanently ‘stopped up’ (closed)
I used to wander public footpaths through rural fields from the very late 1950s, as a young teenager, right through until about four years ago when, first, the restrictions due to the pandemic and then increasing infirmity – I’ll be 80 in ten days – which has rather cramped my style, mobility-wise. I fully accept that field footpaths will sometimes need to be temporarily diverted as a consequence of necessary public works, and even that in the rarest and most specific circumstances a public right of way might have to be closed off permanently. But permanent closure should be a… Read more »
In fairness, there was one stopped up at Padeswood for the same reason, but before that there hasn’t been a permanent one closed in Flintshire since the LA were established in 1996. It’s very rare
Flintshire CC have stopped up two footpaths that were links to bus stops since 1996. One in Hawarden and the other in Treuddyn.
Never knew that! I presume moving the bus stops due to safety?
‘… there hasn’t been a permanent one closed in Flintshire since the LA were established in 1996. It’s very rare.’
That’s been my experience too, both in Sir Ddinbych where we’ve lived since 2016, and, previous to that, on the border between Greater Manchester and Cheshire East.
The entire scheme is sack of odure that attempts to justify more of the same by kicking the CO2 can down the road for private profit.
Any and all actions to prevent this nonsense should be grasped with both hands.
They had to do that in Port Talbot because of TaTa , we now have costal footpath running along Margam mountain. You can see the sea on a fine day. Thank you nettle tea folk. The council tax payers of Neath Port Talbot funded that