THE row over the closure of the controversial Blue Anchor footpath on the new £637,000 Steam Coast Trail escalated this week.
Angry walkers ignored ’keep out’ signs, and chalet-owners, who claim the path is private, have reinforced the fences around their property with concrete.
Now a challenge to the legality of the move has been lodged with Somerset County Council by over 50 protestors and the dispute was described as “reaching boiling point”.
What local residents claim has been a right of way for over 60 years was planned to link the new 1.5km trail with the B3191 road outside Blue Anchor railway station.
But, as reported in last week’s Free Press, owners of the 18 chalets on the site through which the path runs, believe the path is private property.
It has now been fenced off, and walkers and cyclists directed down a steep pebble bank on to the beach.
The first stage of the trail, planned to eventually link Minehead and Williton, was opened last December and is already popular with visitors and local residents.
Now the Blue Anchor Chalet Owners’ Association has sealed off their land with fences and a five-barred gate and put up notices reading: “Please keep to the beach route and respect the privacy of chalet owners.”
A legal challenge has been mounted against the footpath closure by the Ramblers’ Association, whose local footpath officer, Ivor Sutton, is organising a petition to the county council to have the path reinstated as a right of way.
He said: “You need 12 people who have walked the path, without being challenged, for at least 20 years and I have already got over 50, some from as far away as Sussex."
Local county councillor Christine Lawrence this week visited the site and said she understood local concerns, particularly about having to take elderly people and children across the beach at the end of the trail.
“I am seeing the county council’s rights of way officer and I hope that the whole matter can be resolved before things get any worse,” Cllr Lawrence said.