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Our lost footpath
• UNDER pressure from Residents Against Mary Magdalene Academy (RAMMA), Islington Council has finally conceded that the Bride Street park and footpath had existed for more than 20 years when they were demolished, in 2006, to make way for the unnecessary new-build Mary Magdalene primary school.
Under common law, a path linking directly to the highway that has existed for 20 years or more cannot be closed (“stopped up”) without public consultation.
At the time planning permission was granted for the academy, of which the new school will be a part, the council used an out-of-date map to argue that the park and path were built in 1987, less than 20 years previously.
No consultation on loss of the footpath was, therefore, carried out.
Ordnance Survey evidence produced by RAMMA proved conclusively, however, that the path existed in 1982.
In admitting its error, the council has completely changed its legal position, presented to the planning committee, that it was the 2002 Education Act which exempted it from consulting on the loss of the footpath.
It now argues that, as the path was not a highway, public consultation was unnecessary.
It sees no reason to advise elected members of the committee that sought its advice before voting on the academy proposal of either its mistake or its altered legal stance.
MEG HOWARTH
Residents Against Mary Magdalene Academy
Ellington Street
N7
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