The Wansdyke & District Forums

out caching saturday and a path ive used for years is just gone. proper old right of way, on the map, and theres a new fence across it and a sign sending you all the way round the field edge. new stile, new waymarkers, very tidy job. can they just do that? felt off, like being quietly told to clear off.

They can, but only by a proper process. A right of way can be diverted or extinguished, but it requires an order from the highway authority, usually the county council, advertised publicly, with a window for objections. If it is on the definitive map it cannot simply be fenced off on a whim. What you describe, done quietly and tidily, may be a legitimate diversion order you did not happen to see advertised, or it may be a landowner chancing it. Check the county's online list of recent path orders for that parish. If there is no order, report it; the council has a duty to act.

Wiltshire publishes its rights-of-way orders and the definitive map online; look there for an order before assuming the worst:
https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/recreation-rights-of-way

cheers Trev. couldnt find an order for it which is what bugs me. landowners one of those that buys up and you never see a face, just a managing agent in another county. ill report it and see.

theyre within their rights to apply but not to just fence it. that said half the new owners round here dont farm, they just want the public off. different world from when a footpath was a footpath and nobody minded.

reported it. council says theyll look into it. will update if anything happens (betting nothing does).