A footpath dispute in Llŷn will be reviewed by planners after decades of public use claims
Nefyn: There’s a bit of a stir over a footpath in this lovely seaside village. Some folks say they’ve been using it for years, and now it’s going to be looked at by the planners.
The council, Cyngor Gwynedd, is set to review a 213-meter path that runs from Nefyn town to the beach, right along the shoreline to Nefyn Harbour. Sounds pretty scenic, right?
They got an application to officially register this route as a public footpath, claiming that people have been walking it freely for over twenty years. But not everyone is on board with this idea.
The head of the environment department thinks the council should actually reject the application. This whole thing is going to be discussed at a planning meeting on January 13.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time the footpath has been brought up. A local councillor tried to get it sorted back in 2018, but a new application was submitted in late 2021.
There are 28 statements backing the public’s use of the path, with some people saying they’ve been using it since the 1930s. One person even mentioned using it to get to their boat at high tide since 1937!
Others have shared stories of using the path for leisure, and some say it’s safe for kids to walk. The community council is all for the application, while Natural Resources Wales has also shown support, noting that many people use the path.
However, there are concerns about the path’s maintenance, especially with the cliffs being a bit unstable. Some locals have even tried to stop people from using the path by putting up furniture and toys along the way.
The council has pointed out that part of the route is hard to identify and doesn’t have clear boundaries. They argue that most of the people using it are those who own beach huts or boats nearby.
They also mentioned that part of the path crosses land with no known owner, which complicates things further. The report even lists addresses from the Land Registry, showing that some affected titles are from places as far away as the United States and Brittany.
