Overview
- The Planning Inspectorate opened a six-day public inquiry on Wednesday, and the inspector ruled that privacy and security concerns are outside the hearing’s scope.
- James Matthews and Pippa Middleton bought Barton Court in 2022 and soon put up gates and “no public access” signs on Mill Lane, prompting an application by The Ramblers and more than 30 residents to add the route to the official map of public paths.
- Local witnesses told the hearing they used the lane for years without being turned back and called it a safer link than Station Road, which they described as narrow, fast, and lacking pavements.
- Matthews’ legal team says the lane has always been a private driveway with signage, that too few people used it to qualify as public, and that alleged interruptions such as a 2016 rail-bridge closure and a past gate lockout break the 20‑year use claim.
- Under UK rights‑of‑way law, a path can be recorded as public if the public used it freely for at least 20 years, so the decision will rest on evidence from 2002 to 2022 and could decide whether villagers regain a safer walking route through Kintbury.