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Copy of letter dated 15/08/03
Copy of letter dated 15/08/03 to Ms Jane Stevenson, Resource Management, Suffolk County Council from Kessingland Parish Council.
Re Beaconsfield Road Kessingland.
Dear Ms Stevenson
I refer to our recent telephone conversation and your letter with enclosures.
From the substance of our last telephone conversation, I understand that any comment made by Kessingland Parish Council about your draft report and any new facts and evidence will be included in your submission to the Rights of way and Traffic Sub Committee. The Parish Council can have no separate say in front of the County Councillors sitting on that Committee.
That being the case this letter is submitted by the elected officers of Kessingland Parish Council, acting on behalf of the Community of Kessingland.
There seems to be confusion over exactly what the Parish Council is talking about. If the ?Map 2 of 2? is used throughout as a reference point, it should clarify the situation.
The route A-B-C is not what the application is about. The route A-B is not Chipperfield Road as stated in the draft report. A-B is now a made up road with road signs at the Wash Lane junction showing it to be Beaconsfield Road ? No.1 Beaconsfield Road is clearly shown behind 16 Wash Lane. Chipperfield Road does feature in this application at all, and any reference to it should be ignored.
About 40 yards south from the junction of Wash Lane/Beaconsfield Road is point ?D?. This is shown as one end of Footpath 15, which goes east as far as point ?B?. Here it crosses over Beaconsfield Road and continues to travel east behind a high hedgerow travelling parallel to Beaconsfield Road, which at this point is and unmade road. At the top by the junction with Green Lane is a road sign showing Beaconsfield Road.
Earlier mapping like that attached to the evidence of Mr.KNIGHT, which dates before the development north of Beaconsfield Road, Shows Beaconsfield Road to be straight between Wash Lane and Green Lane. This route was used before the construction of 5-16 Beaconsfield Road, and is referred to in some of the attached evidence.
Waveney District Council has said that outline planning permission for the estate north of Beaconsfield Road was granted in April 1979, when the route A-B would be created. Therefore Beaconsfield Road nows runs between points A-C with Footpath 15 crossing at point ?B?.
Up until 1993 the route A-C was used by residents and holidaymakers to access Green Lane and beyond in vehicles without having to negotiate a very dangerous junction Green Lane/Church Road. As a vehicular route this has been in existence for a long time, unfortunately those people who can give evidence of that fact are either dead or too elderly. The new evidence attached comes from residents and holidaymakers who give some years of use prior to 1993 and covers Beaconsfield in both formats. One person gives evidence going back to 1940-43, in the main it is use in the 1960?s and 1970?s that are the years referred to.
The problem arose in 1993 when bollards were put across the easterly end of Beaconsfield Road, near to the junction with Green Lane, there the followed confusion as to what the Parish Council were seeking.
Simply put, it wanted Beaconsfield Road between points B-C upgraded as a ?byway open to all traffic?. Footpath 15 still existed alongside Beaconsfield Road, but for some reason the issue became clouded with the residents of Beaconsfield Road suddenly calling Beaconsfield Road, Footpath 15. From using the road like any other resident in the area, it suddenly became ?their? road blocked off to stop vehicles being driven too fast.
No vehicle could drive that fast so as to cause a problem on this piece of unmade road. Some of the residents even suggested a personal vendetta by a Parish Councillor against the residents.
We have now moved forward, Beaconsfield Road has been closed off so that residents cannot use it for vehicular access, it can still be walked.
In 2001 the Parish Council looked at the road around Kessingland that serve the Community and holidaymakers alike. Certain black spots were highlighted; one was the junction Green Lane/Church Road. The report was submitted to the Environment and Transport department of Suffolk County Council and was adopted to become Kessingland?s Local Traffic Plan.
This wasn?t the first time that the traffic problem was highlighted. In September 1986, members of Suffolk County Council Highways Department met with the Parish Council. Beaconsfield Road was discussed along with Green Lane and Church Road. This was 27 years ago ? [copy letters attached], the problem has not gone away.
Another Suffolk County Council employee, Mr Steve Cordrey is referred to in the evidence of Mrs Brown, in answer to question 15, when the bollards were put down. At the same time she spoke to Waveney District Council and the information she was given appears to be correct in the light of late reference to the Highways Act.
On the 22nd and 23rd November 2002, Suffolk County Council?s Environment and Transport Department had a public consultation in Kessingland regarding the Local Traffic Plan. It was very well attended and some of the results to questions asked were as follows:
1. Do you agree with creating a one-way system [northward] along Green Lane?
162 Replied 92 ? Yes 40 ?No 30 ? No opinion
2 Do you agree with changing part of Beaconsfield Road from a public footpath?
allowing vehicles to travel in one direction from Green Lane.
160 Replied 100 ? Yes 31 ? No 32 ? No opinion.
This should be added to the evidence in support of the Parish Council?s application to make Beaconsfield Road a ? byway open to all traffic?
The Parish Council have since the start of the Traffic Plan kept in touch with the Environment and Transport Department and Kevin SHIPP from that department recalls speaking to some of the residents from Beaconsfield Road at the public consultation. Unfortunately he did not make a record of the people concerned but some residents in Beaconsfield Road told him that they now want the road to be opened.
The Parish Council is desperately trying to restore the infrastructure in Kessingland, to benefit both the residents and the holidaymakers. Tourism is one of our main sources of income for our local small businesses,
The Traffic Plan is an essential part of Kessingland?s plans for the future.
The draft report states that the evidence has been investigated to determine whether or not any rights higher than those recorded on the Definitive Map exist. Your recommendation is that this formal application be rejected. The reason given is that the evidence is considered insufficient to even a reasonable allegation that there are rights higher than pedestrian rights on the length B-C of Beaconsfield Road. The reference to Chipperfield Road is incorrect.
The Parish Council would argue strongly against the recommendation and the reasons given for it. The legislation on this would appear to be in favour of the Parish Council and the Community.
The Highways Act 1980 section 31 [as amended] states: -
? Where a way over any land, other than a way of such character that use of it
by the public could not give rise at Common Law to any presumption of dedication has been actually enjoyed by the public as of right and without interruption for a full period of 20 years, the way is deemed to have been dedicated as a highway, unless there is evidence that there was no intention during that period to dedicate it?.
It could be said that the laying down of the bollards by some of the residents in Beaconsfield Road in 1993 is in breach of Section 31 and should be removed.
Dealing with the evidence, a lot of the evidence is obviously historical, as Beaconsfield Road has been closed for the past 10 years. Having said that some credence has to be given for history, some residents of Kessingland had been using Beaconsfield Road as a vehicular right of way since the 1920?s ?1930?s when fishing was a thriving industry in Kessingland. The residents of Beaconsfield Road themselves used the road. With the loss of the fishing sheds, the area has become somewhere where homes and holiday chalets have been built alongside each other, and all continued to use the right of way for vehicles as did the emergency services and all the amenity services.
This was done to avoid a very narrow and dangerous junction of Green Lane and Church Road. It was safer to use Beaconsfield Road into Wash Lane, instead of attempting to exit via Church Road. This has been highlighted I the Local Transport Plan and the 1986 meeting with the County Surveyors Department. The community want the road open for vehicular access to implement a badly needed one-way system.
The Parish Council would have liked the opportunity to give their reasons on behalf of the Community direct to the Rights of Way Committee, why Beaconsfield Road should have its status changed to become a ?byway open to all traffic?.
Because we will not be allowed to do so a copy of this letter will be sent to our representative on the County Council, Councillor Tony Andrews for him to push the Parish Council?s case. A copy of this letter will also be forwarded to the Environment and Transport Department who are dealing with the Local Transport Plan.
Yours sincerely
Liam Martin
Chairman ? Kessingland Parish Council
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