AFTER legal wrangles lasting more than two and-a-half years, Town Hall chiefs at Warrington have agreed to designate the route of an old road which could date from World War 2 as a public right of way.
Camp Road originally provided access to the US air base at Burtonwood but is alleged to have been used by the public since around 1959.
A resident of Shackleton Close, applied in December 2005 for the route to be added to the definitive rights of way 
map as a footpath – and more than 50 local residents supported the application.
Now the borough council’s traffic committee has agreed to do so – despite objections from the owners of the Gulliver’s World theme park.
After the meeting, Coun Judith Wheeler (pictured) said: “This is wonderful news for all the local residents and other users of the route who could have lost their freedom to walk this route.”
Gulliver’s World may appeal against the decision.
The section of the route to be designated a public right-of-way runs from Sankey Valley Park to Cromwell Avenue.
Evidence considered by the committee included an aerial photograph believed to date from 1983, archive highway documents relating to nearby housing developments and the construction of Cromwell Avenue, attempts by land agents to prevent public use of the road, including police action to turn back cylists and motor cyclists, barricades being erected and broken down, etc.
Users claim to have used the route shortly after the air base closed in 1959.
The Ministry of Defence sold the land to the 7th Baron Lilford in 1962.
It passed into the ownership of Warrington Development Corporation in 1974.
Outline planning consent for Gulliver’s World was granted in 1985 and the theme park opened four years later.
The theme part operators have claimed that over the years a number of notices prohibiting use of the route were erected, together with barricades. But these were often torn down – possibly by local people who felt strongly that it was a public right-of-way.
