Dunford footpath No. 6 is in a remote corner of Barnsley metropolitan borough on the edge of the Peak District National Park. There has been a history of problems with this footpath going back over 20 years: verbal intimidation, & the erection of gates across the driveway to the property of 'Eagles Nest' has often made progress problematical. More recently, electrically-operated gates at the path’s junction with Whitley Road were erected & path users were required to press a button on the gates to gain admittance. This makes a nonsense of the fact that this is a public highway requiring unfettered access 24 hours per day.

The Society brought pressure to bear on Barnsley MBC to take action to restore free access to this path. The highway authority served a notice on the owner requiring him to keep the gates open to the legal width of the footpath, giving him 28 days to comply. This was ignored by the owner & legal action was initiated by Barnsley MBC at our request. This prompted the owner to agree to insert a pedestrian gate within the structure of the main gates to allow unhindered access to path users (see below). This was done by the November 19th deadline. Barnsley Council are to be congratulated for their persistence in ensuring this matter was quickly resolved to our satisfaction.

Thanks also go to the Society’s Area Officer in Barnsley, Chris Davison, for monitoring the path on a regular basis & taking the photos. Also to Society member & former inspector Paul Clarke who also kept a close eye on things (including visiting the site at 10.30p.m. one night to check if the gates were being kept open).