A FARM labourer's daughter told a public inquiry how she walked a scenic footpath threatened with closure throughout her childhood.

Dorothy Harrop, of Brownlow Street, Clitheroe, was a witness in the fight against the closure of a stretch of the Ribble Way in Sawley at an inquiry by inspector John de Winton in the Ribble Valley council chamber.

Former Environment Secretary John Gummer ordered the deletion of a two and-a-half mile stretch of the path between Sawley Lodge Drive and Steeps Wood from the definitive map in 1985.

Mrs Harrop said she had walked the controversial route since the 1930s and had always regarded it as a public right of way.

"I frequently walked the route with my father who was a farm labourer in the village. I never encountered stiles or gates, and never had to ask permission to do so," she said.

Under cross-examination by Michael Orlick she insisted that she had walked the path without permission, not because her father was known to the Sawley Estate, which owned the site. "As a child, I walked freely on one of the most scenic routes I have ever known," she insisted.

Gwendoline Robinson, of St Mary's Street, Clitheroe, told the hearing she first walked the route as a child in the 1940s.

She too had never sought permission to do so and had never seen signs proclaiming the path as private property.

Lancashire County Council has argued that closure will mean long diversions away from the river and the loss of superb views.

The Ramblers' Association has vowed to fight the closure and chief officers from the organisation have attended the inquiry from London.

Landowner Patricia Lord was today expected to outline the trouble and misery suffered by nearby residents as a result of the path's use by walkers, including death of animals, damage to hedgerows and theft. She will describe the route's designation as a right of way as a blunder.

The inquiry is expected to end tomorrow.

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