18 Mar Update on Public Right of Way at Blythburgh Station
Blythburgh Parish Council (‘BPC’) has applied for a Public Right of Way along the footpath from the A12 to another footpath, Church Path. Its legal status until the application was made was a Permissive Footpath, whereby the landowner permitted members of the public to use the footpath. The section from the station to Church Path is along the trackbed of the Southwold Railway. The new public footpath will be 3 metres wide. We opposed BPC’s application vehemently because we had intended to extend our railway to Church Path. At the Committee Meeting mentioned below, inter alia, we submitted to the Committee that the Parish Council had only made the application to thwart our plan to extend our railway to Church Path. The hearing was recorded by SCC and is on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/live/m3uSoIDQiRA?si=Bg5qFs_EvWt0-Q1a
The decision to grant BPC’s application was taken by Suffolk County Council on 3rd February at a meeting of its Development and Regulation Committee in Ipswich, when the Committee considered the evidence before it. Its decision was made after it had heard submissions by the representatives of Blythburgh Parish Council and us (HSNGR). The Committee decided unanimously to grant BPC’s application and the Public Right of Way Modification Order was made by SCC on 11th February 2026. The Order has yet to be confirmed and part of the procedure, before it can be confirmed, is for it to be advertised on site and in a newspaper, in this case the East Anglian Daily Times. Please see the photographs of the Order on our site. Objections can be made in writing at the address shown on the Notice. No email address is mentioned on the notice but we have found an email address and it is prow.east@suffolk.gov.uk. We presume that objections by email will be accepted by SCC, since such communications would be “in writing” but if you wish to object by email, we advise that you should first check with SCC.
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