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A ‘draft’ DMMO has been issued by Medway Council for a problem alley in Twydall.
The Definitive Map Modification Order (DMMO) sseeks to make the alley linking Eastcourt Lane and Lamberhurst Green a public right of way (PRoW).
However, the DMMO has caused great confusion amongst residents with an interest in the alley, some of whom have not personally been issued with a copy of the order.
Medway Council are obliged to provide anyone whose property borders the prospective PRoW with a copy of the order as soon as it is made, yet many are only aware of it through neighbours, or the posted DMMO on a lampost in Eastcourt Lane (pictured).
Further confusion has been created, Alan W Collins has been told, by Medway Council informing concerned residents that the DMMO is only a draft, although an adviser to residents has said that as it carries the council seal, has been posted on the alley and has (allegedly) appeared in the newspaper, it is deemed to be made and published.
Despite the confusion, however, residents have until 24th July to raise any objections to the creation of a public footpath.
The legal criteria
Before an authority can make a DMMO to add a path to the Definitive Map and Statement, it must be satisfied, having considered all the available evidence, that public rights of a defined status subsist, or are reasonably alleged to subsist. This test must be satisfied whether the authority is promoting and Order on its own behalf or determining a formally submitted application for a DMMO under Schedule 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
The full statutory procedure is set out in Schedule 15 of the same act.
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If Medway Council put half as much effort into sorting out the underlying problems we might get somewhere,after all they claim to be serving all the community.