Not too long ago Cumbria County Council acquired a big lump of our local dockland for redevelopment. Nothing wrong with that I’m all for progress but today when I had a pickup down in the docks area I was startled to see that signs have gone up to tell us that it is now private land and that we have no access or right of way. What a damn cheek the people of Barrow have always had access to the docklands and there have been rights of way going across them for as long as living memory. I thought that they were going to develop the land for the people of Barrow, not steal it from them. Is this an indication of how they mean to go on, maybe the waterside housing estate they talk of developing is going to be exclusively for offcomers and will have security guards manning the gates to keep, us local yokels out.
2 comments:
A lot of American jurisprudence came from British common law. One of those common laws was the right of passage. If a passageway thru private property has been in use for over a year then it becomes a public right-of-way and cannot be closed to the public's use.
That is why the street that passes thru the Radio City Music Hall area in NYC is closed for one day each year. It is a private roadway and will remain so as long as that annual closure occurs.
That's a real shame. They should be opening up more waterside walks not closing them off...
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